Simulate line with robot

[Fernanda]

Hi,

I am a beginner with Arena.

I would like to have some help on simulating a manufacturing line with robot at Arena. Since it is a robot cell I will not have any queue inside it, the robot will pick up one part at a time and move from one station to another.

I am trying to use the QUEUE block without success, even if I set the capacity as 1, the others entity that are arriving are being disposed but I want to block the entity flow.

Could you anyone help me?

Thank you!

[Hirotaro]

Are you using conveyors? Why will you not just use the Seize-Delay-Release logic to model the robot action. In this way you do not have to specify the capacity of the queue (therefore arriving entities will not be balked).

[ewilliams]

The Hold block (Advanced Process panel) is also likely to be valuable -- this module holds an entity until either a condition becomes true or until a Signal block sends it a signal to proceed.

[Fernanda]

No, I am not using conveyors.

I have already tried both: Seize-Delay-Release and Hold blocks.

Both of them (Seize and Hold) gives me a queue in the middle of my process, but I do not have a buffer in my process. The robot cannot Seize or Hold more than one entity at a time.

[Hirotaro]

I believe your problem is more basic-theoretical than conceptual.
If there is no variability in the arrivals to the robot cell and its process time of the robot itself (both are constant values), then you will not observe a queue in front of the machine (...if you are dealing with the ballanced line obviously). However this characteristic of production lines is rarely observed in the real life. Therefore, you will typically observe a queue in front of your robot cell, either in hold block or queue in front of seize block.