In: IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 6, No. 2, pages 242-247. April 1990.
Abstract: The emulation of pick-and-place machines to compute their throughput rate for different products is a key ingredient for capacity planning and scheduling of high-volume assembly lines. It is shown how an emulator can be built in the framework of Petri nets and how it can be instantiated for a particular setup and sequence of placements. Three advantages are argued for the proposed emulator: the emulation code can be generated automatically, the model represents the concurrency, and it allows a formal representation of the machine's operations.
Keywords: net-based emulation; pick-and-place machine; computer aided manufacturing; assembly line.