In: International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 39, No. 2, pages 255-282. 2001.
Abstract: First-order hybrid Petri nets are models that consist of continuous places holding fluid, discrete places containing a non-negative integer number of tokens, and transitions, either discrete or continuous. The first part of the paper provides a framework to describe the overall hybrid net behavior that combines both time-driven ad event-driven dynamics. The resulting model is a linear discrete-time, time-varying state variable model that can be directly used by an efficient simulation tool. The second part of the paper focuses on manufacturing systems. Manufacturing systems are discrete-event dynamic systems whose number of reachable states is typically very large, hence approximating fluid models have been often used in this context. The paper describes the net models of the elementary components of a flexible manufacturing system (machines and buffers) and shows in a final example how these modules can be put together in a bottom-up fashion.
Keywords: hybrid Petri nets, manufacturing systems.