Time-optimal path planning is a critical problem in any system employing mobile robots. Much
of the literature on this problem operates under two major assumptions: the environment is static,
and the robots’ effective shapes are constant and discretized either as a circle or a sphere, disregarding the impact of the robot’s orientation on the overall task. These assumptions are restrictive in
swarm manufacturing, where the environment is dynamically changing and manufacturing robots
have geometric constraints for operation. For example, robots can not only move but also change
their effective shapes depending on the parts they carry or the material deposited. These variations can significantly impact the path-planning solution. In this paper, we propose a methodology
to find time-optimal paths in swarm manufacturing while explicitly considering the effective and
changing shapes of mobile robots and the dynamic obstacles surrounding them.Mechanical Engineerin
