Operation planning of Industrial Robots Based on Deterioration Simulation

This paper proposes a method for optimizing the operating conditions of industrial robots in order to improve their reliability, as an application of a facility life cycle simulation to life cycle management. In the life cycle simulation, operational and environmental stresses acting on components are evaluated and their deterioration processes and resultant functional degradation are simulated based on task descriptions, robotic models, and deterioration models. By means of hybrid genetic algorithm, a layout of the robot and velocity patterns for executing specific operations is optimized so as to minimize deterioration of the joint gear, while maintaining a constant total execution time for the operation. Application of the method to robot manipulators in an automatic assembly line is described as an illustrative example.