Evaluation of Discrete Event Simulation as a Tool for Modelling and Analysing Manual-Robotic Production Systems

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates how Discrete Event Simulation (DES) can be used to modeland analyse an automated solution for a production system. The simulation modelsbuilt and run in this study are based on two different layouts of a quality controlproduction system where two cobots have been implemented in order to automatethe system. The aim of the thesis was to build the simulation models as well asevaluate the two different programs used. The 3D visualisation program used forthis thesis is Visual Components and the advanced DES program used is TecnomatixPlant Simulation. The results show that for the purpose of the simulationmodels, while Visual Components has clear visual benefits compared to TecnomatixPlant Simulation, Tecnomatix Plant Simulation was the better equipped simulationtool. An effective method to build simulation models of this complexity is to workiteratively, introducing one behaviour at a time. Of the two different layouts, thesecond layout introduced seems to have the most benefits