Auto Correlation and Collision Avoidance in Robotic Flow Shops

We present a deterministic scheduling approach for cyclic flow shops based on a n-dimensional collision map, and compare it to discrete event simulation. The map facilitates the optimisation of process release times for periodic and non periodic schedules. The method rests upon the finding that the release intervals of processes to the shop and the correlation lengths of robot operations inside the shop are identical. For zero correlation, collisions of robot operations are avoided