Scheduling of smart intra–factory material supply operations using mobile robots

Abstract

This paper presents the design and prototype implementation of a service-based control system responsible for the material supply operations planning and coordination in assembly lines. The material supply processes are carried out by autonomous mobile units that are responsible for the transportation of the consumables from the warehouse to the production stations. The plan generation based on time and inventory level driven criteria is automatically carried out by a web-based software that can also distribute the derived plan to the autonomous mobile units. The proposed system was implemented on a case inspired by an actual production line from the automotive assembly sector. Discrete event simulation has been employed for the investigated production system, to derive the specifications for the mobile units (e.g. number of boxes that can carry simultaneously) that may serve the system efficiently. The results indicate that the proposed architecture integrated with the discussed mobile assistant units may provide high quality solutions with respect to the end user criteria.