Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-4

Optimizing
Multi-Robot
Workcell
Performance
W
4
hen deploying robots in an industrial setting, one of
the primary goals is performance. In an industrial
robot workcell, performance is often measured as
cycle time: the time required to complete a set of tasks. Typical
tasks include painting, welding, and inspecting. Regardless of
the tasks, the goal is to complete them as fast as possible, so
that the workcell can begin work on the next set of tasks. A
long cycle time for a given cell can cause that cell to become
the bottleneck on an assembly line.
One way to try to improve performance is to use multiple
robots in the same workcell. In a multi-robot workcell, the tasks
can be divvied up among the robots, with the expectation that
the robots can perform their work concurrently and thus
shorten the cycle time. In theory, more robots means more
performance but, as is also true of adding cooks to a kitchen,
results in practice do not always meet expectations.
The Challenge of Multi-Robot Workcell Performance
Recently, a customer approached us after adding a second
robot to a workcell, saying that they achieved only a meager 10
percent reduction in cycle time. While one might not expect
to get perfect parallelism (going from 1 robot to N robots and
achieving a cycle time that is 1/N of what it was before), we
want to maximize the benefit of adding robots to a workcell.
Why is it difficult to achieve better performance in multi-robot
workcells? Imagine you are designing a workcell with four
Motion Design, October 2023

Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023

Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Intro
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sponsor
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Cov2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 3
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 4
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 5
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 6
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 7
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 8
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 9
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 10
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 11
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 12
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 13
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 14
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 15
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 16
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 17
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 18
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 19
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 20
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 21
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 22
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 23
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 24
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 25
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 26
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-1A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-2A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-3A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-4A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-5A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-6A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-7A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-8A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-9A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-10A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-11A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-12A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-13A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-14A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-15A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-16A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-17A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-18A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-19A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-20A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-21A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-22A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-23A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-24A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-25A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-26A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-27A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-28A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-29A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-30A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-31A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-32A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-33A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-34A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-35A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Comsol-36A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 27
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 28
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 29
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 30
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 31
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 32
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 33
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 34
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 35
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 36
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 37
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 38
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 39
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 40
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 41
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 42
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 43
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 44
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 45
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 46
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 47
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 48
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 49
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 50
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 51
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 52
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Cov3
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Cov4
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-Cov2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-3
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-4
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-5
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-6
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-7
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-8
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-8A
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-8B
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-8C
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-8D
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-9
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-10
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-11
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-12
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-13
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-14
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-15
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-16
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-17
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-18
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-19
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-20
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-21
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-22
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-23
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-24
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-25
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - MD-Cov4
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-Cov2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-1
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-2
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-3
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-4
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-5
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-6
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-7
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-8
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-9
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-10
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-11
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-12
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-13
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-14
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-15
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-16
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-17
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-18
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-19
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-20
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-21
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-22
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-23
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-24
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-25
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-26
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-27
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-28
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-29
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-30
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-31
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-32
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-Cov3
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - Sensor-Cov4
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