In: Petri Net Technology for Communication-Based Systems, pages 161-196. Volume 2472 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Hartmut Ehrig, Wolfgang Reisig, Grzegorz Rozenberg and Herbert Weber (Eds.) --- Springer-Verlag, November 2003.
Abstract: This contribution provides a thorough survey of our work on rule-based refinement. Rule-based refinement comprises the transformation of Petri nets using rules while preserving certain system properties. Petri net rules and transformations are expressed by morphisms and pushouts. This allows an abstract formulation of our notions independent of a specific Petri net class, as place/transition nets, elementary nets, predicate/transition nets etc. Hence, it is adequate to consider our approach as rule-based refinement of Petri nets in general. We have presented various results in recent years at different conferences. So this contribution gives an overview of our work in a compact form leaving out the technical details.