Research Trends and Outlooks in Assembly Line Balancing Problems

This paper presents the findings from the survey of articles published on the assembly line balancing problems (ALBPs) during 2014-2018. Before proceeding a comprehensive literature review, the ineffectiveness of the previous ALBP classification structures is discussed and a new classification scheme based on the layout configurations of assembly lines is subsequently proposed. The research trend in each layout of assembly lines is highlighted through the graphical presentations. The challenges in the ALBPs are also pinpointed as a technical guideline for future research works

Exact and heuristic methods for solving the Robotic Assembly Line Balancing Problem

[EN] In robotic assembly lines, the task times depend on the robots assigned to each station. Robots are considered an unlimited resource and multiple robots of the same type can be assigned to different stations. Thus, the Robotic Assembly Line Balancing Problem (RALBP) consists of assigning a set of tasks and a type of robot to each station, subject to precedence constraints between the tasks. This paper proposes a lower bound, and exact and heuristic algorithms for the RALBP. The lower bound uses chain decomposition to explore the graph dependencies. The exact approaches include a novel linear mixed-integer programming model and a branch-bound-and-remember algorithm with problem-specific dominance rules. The heuristic solution is an iterative beam search with the same rules. To fully explore the different characteristics of the problem, we also propose a new set of instances. The methods and algorithms are extensively tested in computational experiments showing that they are competitive with the current state of the art. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Borba, L.; Ritt, M.; Miralles Insa, CJ. (2018). Exact and heuristic methods for solving the Robotic Assembly Line Balancing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research. 270(1):146-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.03.011S146156270

The 1990 progress report and future plans

This document describes the progress and plans of the Artificial Intelligence Research Branch (RIA) at ARC in 1990. Activities span a range from basic scientific research to engineering development and to fielded NASA applications, particularly those applications that are enabled by basic research carried out at RIA. Work is conducted in-house and through collaborative partners in academia and industry. Our major focus is on a limited number of research themes with a dual commitment to technical excellence and proven applicability to NASA short, medium, and long-term problems. RIA acts as the Agency's lead organization for research aspects of artificial intelligence, working closely with a second research laboratory at JPL and AI applications groups at all NASA centers

Parallel Manipulators

In recent years, parallel kinematics mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the academic and industrial communities due to potential applications not only as robot manipulators but also as machine tools. Generally, the criteria used to compare the performance of traditional serial robots and parallel robots are the workspace, the ratio between the payload and the robot mass, accuracy, and dynamic behaviour. In addition to the reduced coupling effect between joints, parallel robots bring the benefits of much higher payload-robot mass ratios, superior accuracy and greater stiffness; qualities which lead to better dynamic performance. The main drawback with parallel robots is the relatively small workspace. A great deal of research on parallel robots has been carried out worldwide, and a large number of parallel mechanism systems have been built for various applications, such as remote handling, machine tools, medical robots, simulators, micro-robots, and humanoid robots. This book opens a window to exceptional research and development work on parallel mechanisms contributed by authors from around the world. Through this window the reader can get a good view of current parallel robot research and applications

Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018

This volume collects the papers published on the Special Issue “Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KARD), which is the first issue of the KaRD Special Issue series, hosted by the open access journal “MDPI Robotics”. The KaRD series aims at creating an open environment where researchers can present their works and discuss all the topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on “mechanisms and robotics”. KaRD2018 received 22 papers and, after the peer-review process, accepted only 14 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects

Aportaciones a problemas de secuencias en entornos productivos JiT mediante procedimientos heurísticos, exactos e híbridos

This thesis, entitled "Contributions to sequencing problems in JiT productive environments using heuristic, exact and hybrid procedures" consists of three publications that address the resolution of job sequencing problems in Just-in-Time productive systems. Firstly, an exact Branch-and-Bound based procedure is presented for solving the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP). Secondly, a different Branch-and-Bound based procedure is applied to the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem (ALWABP). Lastly, a heuristic procedure and an exact algorithm are devised for solving the one machine scheduling problem with earliness and tardiness penalties. All of the presented procedures obtain good results in their respective computational experiments and provide new methodologies that can be applied to similar problemsEsta tesis doctoral titulada "Aportaciones a problemas de secuencias en entornos productivos JiT mediante procedimientos heurísticos, exactos e híbridos" está formada por tres publicaciones que presentan diversos métodos de resolución para varios problemas de secuenciación de actividades en sistemas productivos Just-in-Time. En primer lugar, se presenta un procedimiento exacto basado en Branch-and-Bound para la resolución del problema de equilibrado de líneas de montaje simples (SALBP). En segundo lugar, se aplica otro procedimiento exacto basado en Branch-and-Bound para la resolución del problema de equilibrado y asignación de trabajadores de líneas de montaje (ALWABP). Por último, se presenta un procedimiento heurístico y un algoritmo exacto para la secuenciación de actividades en una máquina, que penaliza tanto adelantos como retrasos. Todos los procedimientos presentados tienen buenos resultados en sus respectivas experiencias computacionales y aportan nuevas metodologías que pueden aplicarse a problemas similare