Developing a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) Approach for Selecting Educational Collaborative Robots (CoBots) in West African Countries

Most African countries are acquiring new technologies to provide awareness and vocational training to trigger innovation in various areas, including manufacturing. However, the existing method that emphasizes least cost by bidders has been found to be deficient. This study conducts a literature review and identifies some CoBots based on the suitability of their properties to West Africa. A hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making approach, comprising the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process and Interval Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution, together combined as FAHP-I-TOPSIS, was selected. This method was modeled and tested as a case study where data were collected from eight Robotics experts from West African countries. The data were analyzed through pairwise comparison and ranking to arrive at the most suitable training CoBot out of five alternatives, and six criteria were considered. Robot (R3) was selected, which, on average, satisfies their priority for Program Flexibility and Economic Cost criteria, because the robot is moderately costly and flexible in programming, too.