Production scheduling in robotic cells

Abstract

The worldwide trend to improve manufacturing productivity has increased the level of automation in manufacturing industries. Among the interrelated issues to be considered in using robotic cells are the scheduling of robot moves, and the sequencing of parts to be produced. In this work, scheduling in two and three-machine robotic cells, producing different part types is studied. Job dependent loading and unloading times were considered to get closer to realistic applications. An algorithm was developed and tested to solve the problem of job sequencing under all robot move cycles, including the NP-hard problems. Results of solving such scheduling problems revealed that solving the NP-hard cycles may result in shorter cycle time. In some cases, they provide minimum cycle time.