Paper Title
A NOVEL FLEXIBLE JOB SHOP SCHEDULING MODEL WITH MULTIPLE ROBOTS AND DEADLOCK CONSIDERATION

Abstract
Abstract - Mobile robots play an important role in modern manufacturing by facilitating the transportation of work pieces, which, however, are less explored in the existing literature on the job shop scheduling. In this study, we propose a novel mixed integer linear programming model for the flexible job shop scheduling with multiple mobile robots, which simultaneously optimizes machine assignment, operation sequencing on each machine and robot scheduling, with the objective of minimizing the exit time. Furthermore, our model incorporates deadlock-avoidance constraints to prevent system failure in scenarios where machine buffers are unavailable in robot driven manufacturing. Through the computational study, it is demonstrated that our model outperforms a traditional model that utilizes only one robot while neglecting machine flexibility. Keywords - Job Shop Scheduling, Flexible Manufacturing, Mobile Robot, Deadlock, Mixed Integer Linear Programming.