Performance evaluation of knowledge-based kitting via simulation

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's (RAS) Ontologies for Robotics and Automation Working Group is dedicated to developing a knowledge representation for robotics and automation. As part of this working group, the Industrial Robots sub-group is tasked with studying industrial applications of the knowledge representation. One of the first areas of interest for this subgroup is the area of kit building or kitting. This is a process that brings parts that will be used in assembly operations together in a kit and then moves the kit to the area where the parts are used in the final assembly. It is anticipated that utilization of the knowledge representation will allow for the development of higher performing kitting systems. While our previous efforts were aimed at designing the basis for performance methods and metrics that may be utilized to determine the performance of kitting systems, this paper presents a system that evaluates the performance of kitting systems through simulation using specific metrics.