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Jesus M2 asked Jesus M2 commented

How to combine the load sequence for a robot?

Hello to everyone,

I'm new here and I've started to use this software (on its trial version) due to a requirement at my job. I hope you can help me.

The situation is as follows:

I'm trying to use a robot as operator, and the robot has to take box layers in the following sequence:

1) Three (03) boxes

2) Three (03) boxes

3) Two (02) boxes

And then, we repeate the process (3, 3, 2) again and again, until infinite.

Inter arrival time for boxes at source is 2.7 seconds.

Currently I have set the robot to take only three or two boxes, but I can't make the combination I have exposed.

Could anyone help me? I would be very grateful.

I'm attaching two documents, so you can see what I've reached :)

Jesús Morales

FlexSim 18.0.1
load sequence
acg-0117-v006.fsm (7.6 MiB)
acg-0117.pdf (179.2 KiB)
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1 Answer

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Jeff Nordgren answered Jesus M2 commented

@Jesus M2,

Attached is your model with the changes that I've made to it. It didn't appear to me that you want to actual combine the flowitems from the conveyors but just pickup different quantities of flowitems based on a cycle. So I used the Batching option of Queue2 to determine what the Robot would pickup rather than how many flowitems to combine in a combiner.

Based on the label "CycleNum" on Queue2, it looks in the Global Table "CycleNum" to see what cycle number it is on (col) and what number to use for the batching (row). This way, you could setup any kind of cycling that you want, with a few minor changes, of course. All of the modifications have been made to Queue2.

Take a look at the model and see if something like this would work for you.

Thanks.

acg-0117-v006-jn1.fsm


acg-0117-v006-jn1.fsm (7.6 MiB)
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Jesus M2 avatar image Jesus M2 commented ·

@Jeff Nordgren wow, you're a genious! Thanks a lot. It works very good for me. Now Jeff, I would like to know how can I do two more things (if it's possible):

1) I would like that the robots takes 1.5 seconds loading and 1.5 seconds unloading the three set of boxes. I mean, I want the robot to take 1.5 seconds for loading three boxes and 1.5 seconds too for loading the two boxes (that's the time that the real gripper takes loading independently if there are three or two boes waiting). Is is posible? Currently the robot is taking 1.5 seconds per each box, so when there are 3 boxes, the load takes 4.5 seconds, and when there are 2 boxes, the load takes 3 seconds.

Many thanks in advance!

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Jeff Nordgren avatar image Jeff Nordgren Jesus M2 commented ·
@Jesus M2

Attached is my previous model with the change that I made. I added a label on each incoming flowitem into Queue2 and gave it a LoadUnload time based on the Cycle of flowitems that were being loaded/unloaded. Then in the Robot, I use that individual flowitem Load/Unload time to make sure that the total time for any given Cycle is 1.5 seconds.

Would something like this work for your situation?

Thanks.

acg-0117-v006-jn2.fsm

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acg-0117-v006-jn2.fsm (7.6 MiB)
Jesus M2 avatar image Jesus M2 Jeff Nordgren commented ·

@Jeff Nordgren Thanks a lot. Now the robot is taking the "batch" of boxes in 1.5 seconds, wheter there are three boxes or two boxes waiting. This is very good.

Now, Jeff, the robot must go from Quueu2 to Queue1 and then go back from Queue1 to Queue2 (back and forth). The SUM of that time (from Quueu2 to Queue1 and then from Queue1 to Queue2) cannot be less than 8 seconds (keeping load time = 1.5 s and unload time = 1.5 s). This is the real situation for me. The robot cannot move so fast. Is this possible to make? It's the only thing missing here. With this we will be done.

**Note: the model is working until 90 sencods. After that time, the robot stops and does not work any longer. I don't know why.

I'm really thankful with you!

Please take a look to the PDF I'm attaching.

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acg.pdf (165.7 KiB)
10847-acg-0117-v006-jn2.fsm (7.6 MiB)
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