An investigation on the effects of wireless instruments on cascaded robots operation

In many applications, identical behavior units operate in one after another to form large and complex systems, as in the case of automated vehicles on a track. Multiple units operating cooperatively find use in many industrial operations particularly in production and assembly lines. In this paper, the operational characteristics of each unit are assumed to be identical and they perform similar tasks. But these tasks have add-on values as one unit performs its task and passes it to the next. In this study, the effect of time delays are investigated on an assembly line having cascaded units, represented by robotic arms operating individually and independently but in a sequential manner. It has been shown that the dynamic operations of the sequence can severely be affected by time delays imposed due to modern wireless instrumentation thus leading to possibility of loss of synchronization or even resulting unstable conditions of the entire system.