OPTIMIZING ROBOT WORKCELL LAYOUT

This paper describes a heuristic algorithm for optimising the layout o f a robot workcell. The algorithm attempts to minimise the total path of travel of a robot arm for a given sequence of operations by determi ning the relative positions and orientations of the stations in the wo rkcell. A unique spatial representation system is used to model the sh apes and orientation of the stations in the workcell. The representati on is very flexible and can closely represent the shapes of many commo n types of peripheral machine encountered in a robot workcell. The alg orithm has been implemented on an IBM compatible PC and the results ob tained are promising.