Scheduling in robotic cells with a self-buffered robot

This thesis considers the scheduling problem occurring in robotic cells consisting of a number of machines and a material handling robot which is responsible for loading/unloading of machines. Identical parts are produced with the same machine route, so flow shop assumption is valid. This is the first study considering a self-buffered robotic cell where the robot has a buffer space moving with it. The study is categorized into 3 main sections in terms of the buffer capacity. The first section, where the buffer capacity is 1, considers only 1-unit cycle in which one part is produced in one repetition. For this section, parameters for which each non-dominated cycle is optimal are determined. Moreover, the benefit obtained by using a self-buffered robot over a classical robot is found. As done in the first part, we determined non-dominated 1-unit cycle for double capacity buffer space and chose two of these cycles. Furthermore, to determine the performance of these cycles, a lower bound for the cycle time of optimal robot move cycle is developed. The final section of the study where the buffer capacity is assumed to be infinite, a new class of cycle called q-accumulated cycle is defined to provide more benefit from the buffer area. To find optimal q-accumulated cycle, optimal buffer capacity for given cell parameters and make comparison of a self-buffered robot and classical one, a computational study is conducted.