Article ID: | iaor19982203 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 76 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 287 |
End Page Number: | 321 |
Publication Date: | Feb 1998 |
Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
Authors: | Hall Nicholas G., Sriskandarajah Chelliah, Kamoun Hichem |
Keywords: | robotics |
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