Abstract

MATEO DOLL, Manuel; D'ARMAS, Mayra  and  DE LOS SANTOS, María Antonia. Determination of the routes of a robot in a production system. uct [online]. 2010, vol.14, n.57, pp.269-277. ISSN 2542-3401.

This paper solves a scheduling problem of cycles in a production system with the presence of robots or AGV (Automated Guided Vehicles). We determine the optimal sequencing for the transport of parts between machines, considering the processing times and transport times from one stage to another in the manufacturing route. The aim of this work is to obtain the optimal sequence of movements of the robot for different configurations of a production system (machines which can be active and inactive, linear and circular file of machines). To solve the different cases, a Branch and Bound was programmed in Visual Basic. The algorithm was tested with 214 instances. The results show that relationships between the different characteristics of the production system exist, such as cycle times, processing times and the distribution of the machines within the production process. These results show the system configurations which allow to significantly reduce cycle times for the robot.

Keywords : Automated Guided Vehicles; Production System; Branch and Bound; Multistage Process.