Algorithms for intelligent turret assembly system

The intelligent turret assembly system (ITAS) is an agile assembly system that allows for a variety of configurations through modular units. This configurability makes it difficult to determine the optimum tool placement configuration. Experiment suggested that the distribution of production time in the ITAS occurs in steps and that the increase in the number of turrets leads to a reduction in the importance of waiting time. Simulated annealing was found to perform better than genetic algorithm and Tabu search. This is possibly due to the lack of domain specific knowledge on how Tabu searches may be directed and problems with the chromosome representation of the tool-station mapping in genetic algorithm.