Reliability Models of Complex Systems for Robots and Automation

Book excerpt: Availability of a system is a crucial factor for planning and optimization. The concept is more challenging for modern systems such as robots and autonomous systems consisting of a complex configuration of components. As complex systems have become global and essential in today’s society, their reliable design and the determination of their availability have turned into a very important task for managers and engineers. Reliability Models of Complex Systems for Robots and Automation offers different models and approaches for reliability evaluation and optimization of a complex autonomous system. Comprehensive fault tree analysis on the critical components of industrial robots and its integration with the reliability block diagram approach is designed in order to investigate the robot system reliability. The cost and hazard decision tree are integrated for the first time in an approach to evaluate the reliability of a complex system. Considers a complex production system composing of several autonomous robots Develops binary state reliability evaluation model for a complex system Introduces new concepts of hazard decision tree Proposes fault tree and reliability block diagram for complex robotic systems Develops stochastic process based reliability evaluation and optimization models Today’s competitive world with increasing customer demands for highly reliable products makes reliability engineering a more challenging task. Reliability analysis is one of the main tools to ensure agreed delivery deadlines which in turn maintains certainty in real tangible factors such as customer goodwill and company reputation.