Intense global competition in manufacturing has compelled manufacturers to incorporate repetitive processing and automation for improving productivity. Modern manufacturing systems use robotic cells a particular type of computer-controlled system in cellular manufacturing. Throughput optimization in robotic cells provides practitioners, researchers, and students with up-to-date algorithmic results on sequencing of robot moves and scheduling of parts in robotic cells. It brings together the structural results developed over the last 25 years for the various realistic models of robotic cells. After describing industrial applications of robotic cells and presenting fundamental results about cyclic production, several advanced features, such as dual-grippers, parallel machines, multi-part-type production, and multiple robots, are treated. Important open problems in the area are also identified.

This book is an excellent text for use in a graduate course or a research seminar on robotic cells.

Robotic cells perform a variety of functions in all types of industrial manufacturing, from semiconductor manufacture to mixing pharmacy compounds Provides an algorithmic analysis of optimal policies for a variety of robotic configurations. Bottom-line, the book provides classification schemes for solving robotic cell scheduling problems Suresh Sethi is one of the leading researchers in OR and in particular, manufacturing-related problems. The book's research team of authors outlines cutting-edge analysis of robotic cell manufacturing problems Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Robotic Cells in Practice.- A Classification Scheme for Robotic Cells and Notation.- Cyclic Production.- Dual-Gripper Robots.- Parallel Machines.- Multiple-Part-Type Production: Single-Gripper Robots.- Multiple-Part-Type Production: Dual-Gripper Robots.- Multiple-Robot Cells.- No-Wait and Interval Robotic Cells.- Open Problems.