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Scheduling large robotic cells without buffers

Author

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  • Chelliah Sriskandarajah
  • Nicholas Hall
  • Hichem Kamoun

Abstract

A robotic cell is a manufacturing system that is widely used in industry. A robotic cell contains two or more robot-served machines, repetitively producing a family of similar parts, in a steady state. There are no buffers at or between the machines. Both the robot move cycle and the sequence of parts to produce are chosen in order to minimize the cycle time needed to produce a given set of parts. This objective is also equivalent to throughput rate maximization. In practice, simple robot move cycles that produce one unit are preferred by industry. In an m machine cell for m >= 2, there are m! such cycles that are potentially optimal. Choosing any one of these cycles reduces the cycle time minimization problem to a unique part sequencing problem. We prove the following results in an m machine cell, for any m >= 2. The part sequencing problems associated with these robot move cycles are classified into the following categories: (i) sequence independent; (ii) capable of formulation as a traveling salesman problem (TSP), but polynomially solvable; (iii) capable of formulation as a TSP and unary NP-hard; and (iv) unary NP-hard, but not having TSP structure. As a consequence of this classification, we prove that the part sequencing problems associated with exactly 2m-2 of the m! available robot cycles are polynomially solvable. The remaining cycles have associated part sequencing problems which are unary NP-hard. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Suggested Citation

  • Chelliah Sriskandarajah & Nicholas Hall & Hichem Kamoun, 1998. "Scheduling large robotic cells without buffers," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 76(0), pages 287-321, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:76:y:1998:i:0:p:287-321:10.1023/a:1018952722784
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1018952722784
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bagchi, Tapan P. & Gupta, Jatinder N.D. & Sriskandarajah, Chelliah, 2006. "A review of TSP based approaches for flowshop scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(3), pages 816-854, March.
    2. Milind Dawande & Chelliah Sriskandarajah & Suresh Sethi, 2002. "On Throughput Maximization in Constant Travel-Time Robotic Cells," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 296-312, August.
    3. Neil Geismar, H. & Dawande, Milind & Sriskandarajah, Chelliah, 2005. "Approximation algorithms for k-unit cyclic solutions in robotic cells," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(2), pages 291-309, April.
    4. Kats, Vladimir & Lei, Lei & Levner, Eugene, 2008. "Minimizing the cycle time of multiple-product processing networks with a fixed operation sequence, setups, and time-window constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 187(3), pages 1196-1211, June.
    5. Mohammad Reza Komari Alaei & Mehmet Soysal & Atabak Elmi & Audrius Banaitis & Nerija Banaitiene & Reza Rostamzadeh & Shima Javanmard, 2021. "A Bender’s Algorithm of Decomposition Used for the Parallel Machine Problem of Robotic Cell," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-15, July.
    6. W Zahrouni & H Kamoun, 2011. "Transforming part-sequencing problems in a robotic cell into a GTSP," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(1), pages 114-123, January.
    7. Drobouchevitch, Inna G. & Neil Geismar, H. & Sriskandarajah, Chelliah, 2010. "Throughput optimization in robotic cells with input and output machine buffers: A comparative study of two key models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(3), pages 623-633, November.
    8. Hichem Kamoun & Nicholas G. Hall & Chelliah Sriskandarajah, 1999. "Scheduling in Robotic Cells: Heuristics and Cell Design," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(6), pages 821-835, December.
    9. Chelliah Sriskandarajah & Inna Drobouchevitch & Suresh P. Sethi & Ramaswamy Chandrasekaran, 2004. "Scheduling Multiple Parts in a Robotic Cell Served by a Dual-Gripper Robot," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 65-82, February.
    10. Gultekin, Hakan & Akturk, M. Selim & Karasan, Oya Ekin, 2006. "Cyclic scheduling of a 2-machine robotic cell with tooling constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(2), pages 777-796, October.
    11. Jiyin Liu & Yun Jiang, 2005. "An Efficient Optimal Solution to the Two-Hoist No-Wait Cyclic Scheduling Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 313-327, April.
    12. Milind Dawande & Michael Pinedo & Chelliah Sriskandarajah, 2009. "Multiple Part-Type Production in Robotic Cells: Equivalence of Two Real-World Models," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 210-228, February.
    13. Drobouchevitch, Inna G. & Sethi, Suresh P. & Sriskandarajah, Chelliah, 2006. "Scheduling dual gripper robotic cell: One-unit cycles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(2), pages 598-631, June.
    14. Carlier, Jacques & Haouari, Mohamed & Kharbeche, Mohamed & Moukrim, Aziz, 2010. "An optimization-based heuristic for the robotic cell problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(3), pages 636-645, May.

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