Scheduling multiple parts in hybrid flow shop robotic cells served by a single robot

Elmi A., Topaloglu Ş. A.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING, vol.27, no.12, pp.1144-1159, 2014 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 27 Issue: 12
  • Publication Date: 2014
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/0951192x.2013.874576
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.1144-1159
  • Keywords: robotic cell, hybrid flow shop, blocking, single robot, simulated annealing, TABU SEARCH ALGORITHM, PARALLEL MACHINES, OPTIMIZATION, SYSTEM, COMPLEXITY
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper addresses the robotic scheduling problem in blocking hybrid flow shop cells that consider multiple part-types, different speed parallel machines at each stage, machine eligibility constraints and a single transportation robot to move the parts between stages. Initially, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is proposed to minimise the makespan. Due to the complexity of the model, a simulated annealing (SA)-based solution approach is developed to solve the problem. This approach uses both simple insertion method and a new neighbourhood structure based on block properties while generating neighbour solutions, which yields two different SA algorithms respectively. The performance of proposed SA approach is assessed over a set of randomly generated instances. The computational results demonstrate that the SA algorithm is effective with the employed neighbourhood structure for this problem.