Collaborative robot selection using analytical hierarchical process

Abstract

The research addresses the deficiency of a structured methodology for the selection of collaborative robots or cobots, a type of an industrial robot that can perform tasks in cooperation with a human operator in a shared workspace. Without a standard procedure, manufacturing and service industries may experience difficulty determining a suitable cobot for their collaborative robot application. The decision to select a suitable cobot requires multiple requirements that may need to be considered along with the multiple choices of cobot alternatives available from various manufacturers. This decision may be difficult because there has been no literature that addresses the requirements that needs to be considered for cobot selection. Identifying the requirements may serve as the standard criteria for evaluation of the various cobots available as of now. The research is focused on determining the specific criteria useful for evaluation of various cobots. Subsequent to the determination of the criteria for cobot selection, an improved multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) algorithm will be utilised to illustrate the methodology for the selection of a cobot suitable to the manufacturing or service industry.