A FBWM-PROMETHEE approach for industrial robot selection

Heliyon. 2020 May 8;6(5):e03859. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03859. eCollection 2020 May.

Abstract

In recent years, the selection of a robot for particular industrial purposes is one of the most challenging problems in the manufacturing environment based on automation and smartness for real-time decision-making. At present, several types of industrial robots with various capabilities, features, facilities, and specifications are available in the market. This makes the decision-making process more and more complicated due to the increase in complexity, advanced technologies, and features that are continually being incorporated into the robots by several manufacturers. The decision-maker needs to identify and select the best-suited robot to attain the desired output with precise application ability, and minimum cost. This paper tries to solve the robot selection problem using Fuzzy Best-Worst Method and PROMETHEE as the two most appropriate multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods for weighting criteria and ranking of decision alternatives, respectively.

Keywords: Business management; Criteria; Fuzzy best-worst method; Industrial engineering; Industrial robots; Industrialization; Industry management; MCDM; Manufacturing engineering; Multidisciplinary design optimization; Operations management; PROMETHEE; Robot selection; Technology management.