In: IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 11, No. 3, pages 317-327. 1995.
Abstract: This paper proposes a general approach to synthesize a class of Petri nets that model shared-resource automated manufacturing systems. The approach imposes minimal restrictions on the interactions among subsystems initially so that the modeler is given significant freedom. To modularize the synthesis procedure, a shared-resource system is formulated from the processes, i.e., the subsystems, that control the system resources and the interactions among the processes. For modeling the processes, Resource Control Nets (RCN's) are defined as the basic generic modules. Then, the system model is built by merging these modules through their common transitions and common transition subnets, which denote the interactions among the processes. The merged net is proven to be conservative and thus bounded. An algorithm is also developed to check two sufficient conditions far structural liveness of the net. This algorithm examines only the net's structure, and appears to be more efficient than state enumeration techniques such as the reachability graph method.
Keywords: Petri nets, manufacturing systems, resource control nets, shared resource systems.