An operation-oriented analysis of hybrid robotic cells

This paper deals with the scheduling of a hybrid robotic cell (HRC) with the objective of minimizing the cycle time, while the robot is able to concurrently perform a special operation on the part and transfer it between two machines. In this case, the robot is a material handling and operating device. It is assumed that parts should be indirectly transferred between all machines after processing on the hybrid robot during the implementation of a special cycle. We restrict ourselves to the linearly configured robotic cells, where identical parts are produced. To analyse this problem, the authors initially provide the lower bound of the cycle time and then examine the performance of practical motion cycles based on this lower bound. A comparative analysis shows the regions where the performance of HRCs is higher than that of classical robotic cells.