Public bicycle sharing systems control and performance evaluation: A Petri net-based approach

To simulate and debug or diagnose manufacturing systems is always challenging. This paper presents a hybrid PLC-controlled and PC Visual Basic (VB)-based Human-Machine Interface (HMI) platform based on Petri net (PN) theory for Manufacturing Systems. An augmented PN model was adopted to design and simulate the operational sequence of the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) at the National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology (NKFUST). With the simulated PN model, the control sequences were quickly translated into PLC programs. A PC-based HMI monitoring system based on the PN model was developed to provide an intuitive offline simulation and online diagnostic tools for the FMS. This hybrid system shows many of advantages by using the economical discrete control unit with PLC, and PC-based HMI using PN model as a base. The discrete event control sequence of an FMS can be easily modeled and evaluated before its build-up. More importantly, it can be diagnosed online when the system is malfunctioning. That is, the presented system provides an adequate means for offline system design, simulation, performance evaluation, and quick online system diagnostic.

Deadlock/livelock problems can cause catastrophic results in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) by forcing them to stop production processes at an unpredictable stage of production. Therefore, they must be handled properly in order to obtain flawless production in FMS. Petri net (PN) based deadlock/livelock studies for FMS have been widely carried out to obtain live PN models. When a PN model is live, this ensures that the modelled FMS is deadlock-free. Firstly, an uncontrolled (plant) PN model is constructed for the FMS suffering from deadlocks/livelocks. Then reachability graph (RG) analysis of this PN model is carried out to provide all possible reachable states of the modelled system. An RG of a PN model of an FMS suffering from deadlock/livelock problems can be split into the live zone (LZ) and the deadlock zone (DZ). The former is the set of system states considered to be legal (good), while the latter is the set of system states regarded to be illegal (bad). The LZ represents the optimal (maximally permissive) system behavior that must be provided by an optimal control policy. Generally, in PN based liveness studies, a liveness enforcing supervisor (LES) consisting of a set of control places (CP) is computed. Then the controlled (closed-loop) PN model is obtained by merging the plant PN model and the LES. If the number of reachable live states of the controlled PN model is the same as the ones that exist in the LZ, then the controlled model is optimal. Otherwise, it is suboptimal. The greater the number of live reachable states of the RG, the more products to be produced within the FMS. Therefore, the number of reachable live states of the controlled PN model is considered as a quality measure. It defines the behavioral permissiveness of the controlled model. In the literature, to verify the behavioral permissiveness of the PN models, the PN tool called INA (Integrated Net Analyzer) has been widely used. Recently, by means of INA, a method was proposed to compute the number of states within the LZ and the DZ of a given PN model suffering from deadlocks/livelocks. Unfortunately, INA cannot compute RGs of large PNs having a few millions of states. Therefore, in this paper by means of TINA (TIme petri Net Analyzer), an alternative faster and much more efficient method is proposed for the computation of the number of states within the LZ and the DZ for PN models with large RGs. In addition, in order to enable the development of new PN based deadlock prevention methods, further computations are also proposed. These include the computation of the set of states in the DZ, LZ and first met bad markings (FBMs) for a given PN model suffering from deadlocks/livelocks. The applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed methods are demonstrated by considering several well-known examples of FMS from the relevant literature.INDEX TERMS Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), deadlock, deadlock prevention, Petri Nets (PN), liveness enforcing supervisor (LES), PN computation tools.

In this paper a hybrid approach is proposed for supervisory control of discrete event systems (DES) subject to forbidden states. Assuming that an uncontrolled bounded Petri net (PN) model of a (plant) DES and a set of forbidden state specifications are given, the proposed approach computes a maximally permissive and nonblocking closed-loop hybrid model. The first step is to simplify the given PN model by means of PN reduction rules. The simplified model and the specifications are then represented as buffers, and supervisory control theory (SCT) is applied to obtain a Ramadge–Wonham (RW) supervisor in the form of an automaton. After reduction of the latter’s state size by a ‘control congruence’, the simplified RW supervisor is represented by a so-called auto-net and coupled to the given uncontrolled PN plant model by means of inhibitor arcs to represent the disabling actions. The plant model and supervisor auto-net run concurrently, synchronizing on shared events. This procedure provides a maximally permissive and nonblocking ‘hybrid’ (mixed PN/automaton) closed-loop controlled system. The method is straightforward logically, graphically, and technologically. Its applicability is shown by two examples, one of them a workcell from the PN control literature.

This paper deals with the modeling and control of discrete event robotic manufacturing cells using Petri nets, and proposes a methodology of model based design and implementation of hierarchical and distributed control. Hierarchical Petri net models are adopted; conceptual Petri net model and detailed Petri net model. The overall detailed Petri net model is decomposed into local Petri net models which are used by the local machine controllers. The upper level station controller coordinates the distributed local controllers so that the aggregate behavior of decomposed subnets is the same as that of the original Petri net. The overall control system is implemented using multithreaded programming based on Petri net based multitask processing. Simulation experiments show that the distributed Petri net model based control system can perform the overall multitask processing control by coincidence of the behavior of the real system with the local Petri net models.

This paper presents a decentralized Petri net (PN) based wireless sensor node architecture (PN-WSNA) to construct a flexible and reconfigurable WSN for intelligent monitoring systems. PN is a graphic based discrete event dynamic system (DEDS) modeling approach, and it is advantageous for modeling the system with concurrent and asynchronous systems. Therefore, the PN is usually used to construct agent based intelligent monitoring systems. The PN-WSNA system consists of a PN-WSNA kernel program and a PN-WSNA management program. The PN-WSNA kernel program is developed as an agent that is installed in the sensor node, and it is responsible of receiving and decoding PN models, collecting sensor data from analog and digital channels, intercommunication between sensor nodes, PN model inference and decision. On the other hand, the PN-WSNA management program is executed on a remote host computer, and it is responsible of distance sensor node managements via routing tables. More specially, a user interface is provided for system managers to edit PN models in a graphic manner, and the PN models can be delivered to the corresponding sensor node online without physical visits. Therefore, the proposed PN-WSNA system not only performs a reconfigurable WSN architecture, but also provides an easy graphical PN edit environment for constructing intelligent agents. Such a system can be applied to the factory automation, intelligent diagnosis, climate monitoring, etc. Finally, a simple prototype system is constructed using the Zigbee BAT mote modules to verify the proposed PN-WSNA system.

Modelling and analysis of kanban-controlled (just-in-time) production systems under realistic assumptions presents a number of challenges, including the ability to conduct both qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the ability to model control policies. These challenges are due, in part, to station interdependence, blocking and starvation due to limited buffer spaces, and the necessity of modelling both material and kanban flows. Petri nets (PNs) have recently emerged as a promising approach for modelling manufacturing systems. PNs are a graphical and mathematical technique useful for modelling concurrent, asynchronous, distributed, parallel, non-deterministic and stochastic systems. PN models can be analysed to determine both their qualitative and quantitative properties. In this paper, we develop stochastic, coloured PN (SCPN) models of a JIT system utilizing two different kanban control policies: a traditional kanban system (TKS) policy and a flexible kanban system (FKS) policy. The resulting models can be used to represent JIT systems of arbitrary size, producing single or multiple types of products, with fixed order points 1. The models are shown to be live and bounded, and can be simulated to produce quantitative results. Sample simulation results are presented to illustrate the models' capabilities.

A Petri net with controller is used to model discrete events in flexible job shop scheduling, the objective of scheduling problems is to minimize make-span, the scheduling results is obtained based on genetic and Tabu Search (TS) algorithm. It is proved capable of providing optimized schedule to the job-shop where the machine tool and manpower resources are both constrained. After crossover and mutation operations, an optimal or suboptimal scheduling plan can be found. The result of the test shows that this method is feasible and efficient. Job shop scheduling is the primary content and critical technology of the production management of CIMS, in the past during 30 years, a lot of researchers and results focus on it, but most of them deal with single objective and resource scheduling problems which are fixed processing route and constrained by machine, and production period is its optimal objective. Nevertheless, the production styles are variable and processing route is determined under the special condition. Moreover, job shop scheduling problem is the most difficult combined constraints optimal problem and typical NP hard problem which can't be solved in polynomial time by an effective algorithm. Up to date, there are some traditional algorithms to solve JSP problem (1-2). About paper (3), Petri net is used to construct JSP model and L1 which combines branch and bound algorithm with dynamic program is used to search its optimal solution. And paper (4), the job sequence is assigned by genetic code firstly, and then filtered beam search which based on breadth-first algorithm is adopted to search. In recent years, the Petri net as a discrete event dynamic system modeling and analysis tool(5), has been successfully applied to the flexible manufacturing system modeling, analysis and control. Some researchers put forward to be based on Petri network scheduling method, but only on the production line itself can not reflect the modeling, as in the production line of external control scheduling strategy influence. A hybrid algorithm is proposed to solve dual-resource scheduling problem in flexible production environment, and Petri net model with a controller, which can effectively model control. It combines the advantage of global search ability of GA with the self-adaptive merit of Tabu Search (TS) and improves its convergence. It is proved capable of global and part searching ability and efficient.

The notions of fairness and conflicts in live, bounded, and strongly connected Petri nets (PNs) are formally related. The PN model of a resource-sharing concurrent system (RSCS) is conflict free when the firing of an enabled transition does not disable another transition in the net. Conflicts in the PN represent unresolved resource allocation conditions. The PN is fair when the firing of any transition more than a given number of times is a sufficient condition for all the transitions in the net to have fired. When the PN is fair, no process in the system can be starved; that is resources are allocated so that all tokens progress through the net. Although these concepts are not equivalent, it is shown that they are strongly related to each other when the PN model is live, bounded, and strongly connected. A computational method for finding conflicts is presented, and the concepts are illustrated with an example of buffer allocation in a sorting algorithm. >

Artificial neural networks (ANN's) are highly parallel and distributed computational structures that can learn from experience and perform inferences. Petri nets, on the other hand, provide an effective modeling framework for distributed systems. The basic concepts of Petri net are utilized to develop ANN-like multilayered Petri net architectures of distributed intelligence having learning ability. A Petri net model of single neuron is presented. A two-layer Petri net model-neural Petri net (NPN)-that uses this neuron model as a building block is described. A new class of Petri nets called the fuzzy neural Petri net (FNPN) is defined. The FNPN can be used for representing a fuzzy knowledge base and for fuzzy reasoning. Some application examples for the two Petri net based models are given. >

Nowadays, Petri net models have been used as a very promising modelling tool for systems and it presents randomness, concurrency, and synchronisation. Many researchers give attention to Petri nets because of its wide utilization. Therefore, reusability, sharing, and standardization are three functions that Petri nets must have. To actualized this concept, Semantic Web technologies can be implemented. One of the Semantic Web technologies is Ontology. In this paper, a formal approach for representing a business process in Petri nets into Ontologies is proposed. Firstly, a business process in Petri nets is presented. Then, formal definitions of Petri nets and OWL DL ontologies are introduced. Next step, converting a business process in Petri nets into OWL DL ontologies. Finally, using SPARQL Query in OWL DL ontologies to make sure that the relations of the business process in Petri nets are the same as the relations of the business process in OWL DL ontologies.

This paper presents an approach to perform Activity Based Costing (ABC) with Petri nets. ABC is a powerful methodology to calculate various of discrete event systems (e.g. production systems). Petri net models of discrete event systems are easy to create, comprehend, and to perform analysis, the mathematics behind Petri nets is also easy to grasp. This paper shows how ABC can be performed with Petri nets, so that various involved in a discrete event system can be easily measured with the help of the Petri net model. After a short introduction to ABC and Petri nets, this paper shows the approach which basically embeds various cost drivers as firing costs and firing times of transitions in a Petri net model. This work also presents a case study that is done with GPenSIM, a toolbox realized with this approach.

In this paper we present a Petri-net-based approach to consider fault tolerance aspects in a modified control track vehicle system. The proposed approach is based on fuzzy time G-nets which is the integration of two Petri nets extensions: fuzzy time Petri net (timing Petri net extension) and G-nets (Petri net extended with object-oriented concepts). We also show how to model such system by means of fuzzy time G-nets.

Compositional analysis aims to reveal the underlying structures of a large-scale system or network by analyzing its constituent components and their relationships. Today’s mathematical modeling languages, such as Petri nets, are useful for describing distributed systems and complex networks. However, the flat model architecture of Petri nets makes it difficult for them to depict the compositional structures of a large-scale model. Therefore, an enhanced compositionality feature has become a significant demand in large-scale modeling with Petri nets. This paper explores the underlying compositional structures of a given Petri net model by using a proposed sorting algorithm. The algorithm analyses compositional structures by sorting an incidence matrix that is generated from the Petri net model. Finally, the proposed sorting algorithm is applied to a traffic network model that was built with Petri nets to analyze its compositional structures, which represent different traffic lines, with the aim of optimizing the traffic network.

The author proposes an approach to represent assembly by Petri nets and presents an algorithm of automatic robot assembly planning based on the Petri-net model. The Petri-net model of assembly is configured by the goal structures and initial constraints, both in the Petri-net formalism. Due to the Petri-net representation of assembly, the plan generation is quite straightforward and the planning algorithm can be easily and efficiently implemented with simple matrix manipulation. An example of how to plan an assembly by the Petri net model is presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Petri Nets (PNs) are an effective structure for modeling and analyzing asynchronous systems with concurrent and parallel activities. A Petri net models the static properties of a discrete event system concentrating on two basic concepts: events and conditions. Most of the theoretical work on Petri nets is a formal definition of Petri nets structures, which consist of a set of places, representing conditions, a set of transitions, representing events, an input function and an output function. For practical purposes, a graphical representation is more useful. Two types of nodes portray places and transitions. A circle is a place and a bar is a transition. There is no inherent measure of time in a classical Petri net. To approach time-based evaluation of system performances, Timed Petri Nets (TPNs) were introduced. Modeling the notion of time is not straightforward. There are several possibilities for introducing time in PNs, among them timed transitions and timed places. This paper reviews several published examples where Petri Nets were used in different circumstances such as estimating expected utilization of processing resources at steady state in open queueing networks, verifying computerized simulations and batch planning in textile industry.