Cyclic scheduling in small-scale robotic cells served by a multi-function robot

The objective of this study is to maximize the production rate of a rotationally arranged robotic cell by finding an optimal move cycle for a multi-function robot (MFR). Using this class of industrial robots makes the cell much more sophisticated than classical one where robot is considered to be only capable of handling material in work cells. MFR is able not only to transfer the part between two adjacent processing stages but also to perform a special operation in transit. The cycle time formulas are developed for small-scale cells where a robot interacts with either two or three machines. Also, this paper presents a methodology for finding the optimality regions of all possible cycles. This analysis results in enhancing the managerial skill for evaluating the productivity improvements of MFRs in robotized workcells.