Robot assembly systems contain one or more flexible robots which can carry out a large number of operations, and can conduct flexible assemble processes. This paper proposes a simultaneous multi-objective design optimization method of component layout and job schedule for multi-robot cellular manufacturing systems. First, in this paper, a sequence-pair representation scheme is utilized to describe layout design candidates, which is able to avoid interference between assembly system components, and the use of dummy components is proposed to represent layout areas where components are sparse. In addition, job allocation to each robot is considered as one of the design variables using discrete values. Next, the design criteria for robot cellular manufacturing system layout designs are clarified, and objective functions are formulated. A multi-objective genetic algorithm is then used to obtain Pareto optimal solutions for the layout and schedule optimization problems.
