Title: Optimising the non-productive time of robotic arm for drilling circular holes network patterns via the Dhouib-Matrix-3 metaheuristic

Authors: Souhail Dhouib; Alaeddine Zouari

Addresses: Higher Institute of Industrial Management, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia ' Higher Institute of Industrial Management, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: The research work in this paper revolves around the non-productive time optimisation (time spent by the drilling tool while travelling between holes) of robotic arm for holes drilling operation based on the novel metaheuristic Dhouib-Matrix-3. In fact, Dhouib-Matrix-3 hybridises in an iterated structure two techniques: the stochastic heuristic entitled Dhouib-Matrix-TSP2 and the local search method named Far-to-Near. The main aim of this study is to prove the performance of Dhouib-Matrix-3 to enhance drilling robot arm non-productive time reduction and then improve productivity. Hence, a literature review was conducted to highlight on the one hand the main algorithms applied in tool path optimisation in drilling process and applicable domains in the other hand. Then, Dhouib-Matrix-3 has been applied on several circular holes network patterns case studies. Afterwards, results of instance simulations in case studies showed that the Dhouib-Matrix-3 exhibits a significant reduction in robot arm path compared to other metaheuristics in the literature: genetic algorithm, basic ant colony optimisation and modified ant colony optimisation.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; optimisation; metaheuristic; drilling holes; path planning for robot arm; simulation; travelling salesman problem; Dhouib-Matrix.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2023.133381

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2023 Vol.16 No.2/3, pp.320 - 338

Received: 20 Sep 2022
Accepted: 17 Nov 2022
Published online: 14 Sep 2023 *

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