Exact method for robotic cell problem

Abstract

This study investigates an exact method for the Robotic Cell Problem. We present an exact branch and bound algorithm which is the first exact procedure specifically designed for this strongly NP-hard problem. In this paper, we propose a new mathematical formulation and we describe a new lower bound for the RCP. In addition, we propose a genetic algorithm. We report that the branch and bound algorithm is more effective than the proposed mathematical formulation which can solve small sized problem. Also, computational study provides evidence that the genetic algorithm delivers reasonably good solutions while requiring significantly shorter CPU times to solve this problem.