Analytic hierarchy process for robot selection

Investment decisions involving robots are capital intensive and are usually made by a committee of experts from different functional backgrounds within a company. In spite of this knowledge, most models in the literature for robot selection assume that there is only a single decision maker. In this paper, a robot selection model that incorporates the inputs from multiple decision makers is provided. This model is based on the analytic hierarchy process method, and both the subjective and objective criteria for robot selection are used. It does not assume that the decision makers have achieved a consensus; that is, they may not agree on evaluations of the robots with respect to each of the criteria. A numerical example is used to illustrate the model.