In: IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 16, No. 4, pages 400-407. 2000.
Abstract: System synthesis is one of the most important issues in automatic control. In a synthesis process, local system properties must be preserved in the global system. Most of the previous researches focuses on such properties as liveness, reachability, reversibility, and so forth. However, little has been done on system behavior, that is, the language of firing sequences. This paper studies the behavior of systems using the Petri net model synthesis, with self-loop inhibitor, as well as synchronization operations. A new system behavior property, behavior invariance, is defined. Self-loop and inhibitor operations are transformed into synchronization operations, under which a set of preservation conditions for behavior invariance are obtained. The theoretical foundation for the preservation of system behavior properties is presented and proved, and the applicability of the theory to real-world automation systems demonstrated. An example of modeling a superelevated conveyor is discussed, illustrating the usefulness of the proposed theory in modeling and analyzing the behavior invariance of such a conveyor.
Keywords: Petri nets, behavior invariance, behavior modeling, system analysis, system synthesis.