Cyclic production for robotic cells served by multi-function robots with resumable processing regime
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Bangkok, (10 - 13 December 2013) p. 551-555
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- Description: This paper addresses the problem of finding the optimal robot move cycle to minimise the cycle time of two-machine cells. The earlier robot's function was mainly moving parts between machines in a manufacturing process. We lift this assumption on robot tasks and assumed a special robot, namely multi-function, which performs a unique operation in transit. This robot starts performing this operation after unloading a part from input buffer and finishes it before loading the part to the output buffer. The processing mode on robot is “stop resume”. Thus, regardless of the gap interrupts during the operation, the robot continues processing on part when it is reloaded to the robot without any loss in time. The focus of this study is on one-unit cycles since they are very popular in industry. The cycle time of two possible one-unit cycles is obtained, and the optimality condition of them is determined.
Scheduling rotationally arranged robotic cells served by a multi-function robot
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Gunawan, Indra , Ibrahim, Yousef
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Production Research Vol. 52, no. 13 (2014), p. 4037-4058
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- Description: Automated material handling systems are usually characterised by robotic cells that result in the improvement of the production rate. The main purpose of this research is to study the scheduling of a rotationally arranged robotic cell with the multi-function robot (MFR). This special class of industrial robot is able not only to transfer the part between two adjacent processing stages but also to perform a special operation in transit. Considering MFR for material handling and operation, the objective function of the research here is the maximisation of production rate, or equivalently the minimization of the steady-state cycle time for identical part production. This problem is modelled as a travelling salesman problem to give computational benefits with respect to the existing solution methods. Then, the lower bound for the cycle time is deduced in order to measure the productivity gain of two practical production permutations, namely uphill and downhill permutations. As a design problem, a preliminary analysis initially identifies the regions where the productivity gain of a regular multi-function robotic cell is more than that of the corresponding single-function robotic cell for both small- and large-scale cells. The conclusion shows the suggested topics for future research.
- Description: C1
Quantifying the impact of using multi-function robots on productivity of rotationally arranged robotic cells
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management , Bangkok, 2013 p. 1194-1198
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This paper investigates the scheduling of a rotationally arranged robotic cell with the Multi-Function Robot (MFR). The earlier known robotic study in this area assumed that the robot only moves the part between machines. We lift this assumption on robot tasks and assumed a special class of robots which is also able to perform a special operation in transit. The aim is to find a minimum cycle time for identical part production. Considering additive and constant travel-time, the distance between any two machines is varying or constant based on the robot acceleration/deceleration for incompact and compact cells. The lower bound of the cycle time is deduced to evaluate the optimality of two practical permutations namely uphill and downhill. It also identifies the regions where using a Multi-Function Robotic Cell (MFRC) is more economical than a Single-Function Robotic Cell (SFRC).
Cyclic scheduling in small-scale robotic cells served by a multi-function robot
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Nov. 2013, Vienna, Austria pp.4362-4367
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- Description: The industrial robot is one of the popular devices used in fully automatic production lines as material handling tool. A consequential problem is finding a cyclic robot movement which gives the maximum cell output in mass production environments. The Robotic Cell Scheduling Problem (RCSP) is predominantly separated into two different problems: Single-Function Robotic Cell (SFRC) and Multi-Function Robotic Cell (MFRC) scheduling problem. These problems are layout-oriented and operation-oriented, respectively. Literature concerning with former case considered a robotic system served by a transporting robot performing a single task. This kind of transporting robot is usually called Single-Function Robot (SFR). For the latter case, the robotic system served by a Multi-Function Robot (MFR) which simultaneously perform an arbitrary task in addition to parts transportation task. Giving a real-life example of MFRs, the use of a class of grippers performing in-process control is significantly increased in industry. The grippers, install at the end of MFR arm, can perform quality control tasks (e.g. accurately measure diameters) while part is carried to next machine. Figure 1 shows an example of these grippers used for measuring the diameter of crankshaft [1]. The measuring heads are integrated into the automation by adding gages and crankshaft locating features to MFR using in these lines. Also, there is a special kind of MFR, namely SDA10, which is suitable for assembly and part transfer in production lines especially if fixturing is costly [2]. Thus, it is crucial to undertake a comprehensive research onto effect of MFRs on production rate.
Scheduling dual gripper robotic cells with a hub machine
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2013 IEEE International Symposium, Taipei, Taiwan, 28th-31st May 2013 p1-6
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- Description: This paper introduces a new methodology to optimise the cycle time of dual-gripper robotic workcells. The workcell under study is composed of a group of m production machines. In order to produce a completed part, a chain of m-1 secondary operations are performed by m-1 different machines, and a hub machine is alternately visited for m primary operations. Indeed, parts must reenter the hub machine after any one of secondary operations. Those types of robotics workcells are used for high capacity production such as in photolithography manufacturing, These cells are cluster tools for semiconductor manufacturing where a wafer visits a processing stage several times for the atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes. For electroplating lines, these cells are also common in practice where there is a multifunction production stage that is visited by parts over once. This optimisation methodology is limited to the dual-gripper robotic cells, where identical parts are produced and these parts completely follow a similar sequence. The lower bound of cycle time for such dual-gripper robotic cells is obtained by finding the cycle time of all related robot move cycles, and subsequently optimal robot task sequence, which is a two-unit cycle, is determined.
Stochastic scheduling of an automated two-machine robotic cell with in-process inspection system
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Smith-Miles, Kate , Gunawan, Indra , Moeini, Ashgar
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 45th International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, CIE 2015; Universite de Lorraine, LCOMS Metz; France; 28th-30th October 2015. In Proceedings - CIE 45: 2015 International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering
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- Description: This study is focused on the domain of a two-machine robotic cell scheduling problem. Particularly, we propose the first analytical method for minimizing the partial cycle time of such a cell with a PC-based automatic inspection system to make the problem more realistic. It is assumed that parts must be inspected in one of the production machines, and this may result in a rework process. The stochastic nature of the rework process prevents us from applying existing deterministic solution methods for the scheduling problem. This study aims to develop an in-line inspection of identical parts using multiple contact/non-contact sensors. Initially, we present a heuristic method that converts a multiple-sensor inspection system into a single-sensor inspection system. Then, the expected sequence times of two different cycles are derived based on a geometric distribution, and finally the maximum expected throughput is pursued for each individual case.
Resolution of deadlocks in a robotic cell scheduling problem with post-process inspection system: Avoidance and recovery scenarios
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Gunawan, Indra , Smith-Miles, Kate
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Singapore, 6th-9th December, 2015. p. 1107-1111
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- Description: The phenomenon of deadlock in robotic cells has been long ignored by most scheduling literature. A deadlock situation arises if a part cannot change its current state indefinitely since the destination machine is occupied by another part. The probability of the deadlock occurrence is likely to be large when the processing route cannot be predicted with certainty due to inspection processes. Our focus here is on a specific robotic cell with a post-process inspection system where the inspection is performed on an independent inspection machine. Avoidance and recovery policies are applied to overcome deadlocks originated from this cell. We develop these policies to prevent deadlock or alternatively resolve it during the online implementation of cycles. The former policy minimizes the storage cost, whereas the later policy minimizes the expected cycle time. An analysis of the scheduling problem that involves timings and costs is also carried out for comparing policies.
Quantifying the impact of using multi-function robots on productivity of rotationally arranged robotic cells
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 2013 IEEE International Conference , Bangkok, Thailand, 10-13 Dec. 2013 p 1194-1198
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Generally, an industrial robot is named the Single-Function Robot (SFR) if it is only able to perform one task like material handling. However, a Multi-Function Robot (MFR) predominantly performs two tasks concurrently: material handling and a special operation. This type of recent robot with this ability can raise production rate. A robot equipped by a special kind of gripper namely Grip-Gage-Go is a real-life applications of MFRs. This gripper makes MFR competent to measure the diameter of the part in transit. These MFRs are widely employed in the inspection of automotive products including crankshaft, gears, and engine valves [1]
Notes on feasibility and optimality conditions of small-scale multifunction robotic cell scheduling problems with pickup restrictions
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Gunawan, Indra , Smith-Miles, Kate , Ibrahim, Yousef
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 11, no. 3 (2015), p. 821-829
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Optimization of robotic workcells is a growing concern in automated manufacturing systems. This study develops a methodology to maximize the production rate of a multifunction robot (MFR) operating within a rotationally arranged robotic cell. An MFR is able to perform additional special operations while in transit between transferring parts from adjacent processing stages. Considering the free-pickup scenario, the cycle time formulas are initially developed for small-scale cells where an MFR interacts with either two or three machines. A methodology for finding the optimality regions of all possible permutations is presented. The results are then extended to the no-wait pickup scenario in which all parts must be processed from the input hopper to the output hopper, without any interruption either on or between machines. This analysis enables insightful evaluation of the productivity improvements of MFRs in real-life robotized workcells. ©2014 IEEE.