A New Solution for the Cyclic Multiple-Part Type Three-Machine Robotic Cell Problem based on the Particle Swarm Meta-heuristic

In this paper, we develop a new mathematical model for a cyclic multiple-part type threemachine robotic cell problem. In this robotic cell a robot is used for material handling. The objective is finding a part sequence to minimize the cycle time (i.e.; maximize the throughput) with assumption of known robot movement. The developed model is based on Petri nets and provides a new method to calculate cycle times by considering waiting times. It is proved that scheduling problem of a robotic cell is unary NP-complete. Achieving an optimal solution for this type of complex, large-sized problem in reasonable computational time by using traditional approaches and optimization tools is extremely difficult. In this paper we implement an algorithm based on the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) method for solving the problem. To validate the developed model and solution algorithm, various test problems are examined some of which are of small-size and some other of large-size. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm achieves optimum solutions for small sized problems, while for large-sized problems this algorithm can find suitable solutions in acceptable time.