Task allocation based on shared resource constraint for multi-robot systems in manufacturing industry

Abstract Industry 4.0 principal is based on the use of more smart production tools, such as robots which are considered as one of the most important innovation that Industry 4.0 is going to widely use for its implementation. These intelligent components of the factory (robots) can execute complex tasks and can make local decisions. Task allocation in this context should satisfy several requirements in terms of time, cost and utilisation rate of production tools. Some expensive tools like grippers or robotic arms are used sporadically during the execution of tasks. In order to increase the utilisation rate of these kind of devices, several methods can be deployed. Effective and safe resources’ sharing between different production tools and process operations is one of the most important challenges for Industry 4.0 implementation. This paper presents an overview of Multi-Robots Task Allocation (MRTA) based on shared resources constraints for flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems. We found that there is few work on the scheduling and MRTA with shared resources. An illustrative industrial case based on gripper sharing is presented to illustrate the complexity of this problem. Several research directions are pointed out and discussed in the conclusion.