FAILURE ANALYSIS FOR AN AIRBAG INFLATOR BY PETRI NETS

Petri nets are useful for modelling a variety of asynchronous and concurrent systems, such as automated manufacturing, computer fault tolerant systems, and communication networks. This study employs an airbag inflator system as an example to demonstrate a Petri net approach to failure analysis. This paper uses Petri nets to study minimum cut sets finding, marking transfer, and dynamic behaviour of system failure. For Petri net models incorporating sensors, fault detection and higher-level fault avoidance is dealt with. Compared with fault trees that present only static logic relations between events, Petri nets indeed offer more capabilities in the scope of failure analysis. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

应用Petri网改进基于故障树的诊断方法

故障树是表示故障发生和故障传播关系的一种逻辑模型,基于故障树诊断方法的广泛应用由于实际故障树分析过程的ＮＰ困难问题而受到妨碍。而Ｐｅｔｉｒ网是一种特殊的有向网,适合于描述故障的传播关系。本文提出了两种基于Ｐｅｔｒｉ网的改进方法,与下行法相比,用该方法寻找最小割集和最小路集能有效地节省上计算时间,提高推理速度和效率;最后还应用Ｐｉｔｒｉ网的状态方程分析方法提出了基于Ｐｅｔｒｉ网的故障监测和诊断方法。     

Analysis of sequential failures for assessment of reliability and safety of manufacturing systems

Assessment of reliability and safety of a manufacturing system with sequential failures is an important issue in industry, since the reliability and safety of the system depend not only on all failed states of system components, but also on the sequence of occurrences of those failures. Methods that are currently available in sequential failure analysis always start with given sequences of the failures in the system, which is not the case in real life situations; therefore, the sequences of the failures should be identified and the probability of their occurrence should be determined. In this paper, we represent a methodology that can be used for identifying the failure sequences and assessing the probability of their occurrence in a manufacturing system. The method employs Petri net modeling and reachability trees constructed based on the Petri nets. The methodology is demonstrated on an example of an automated machining and assembly system.     

The application of Petri nets to failure analysis

Unlike the technique of fault tree analysis that has been widely applied to system failure analysis in reliability engineering, this study presents a Petri net approach to failure analysis. It is essentially a graphical method for describing relations between conditions and events. The use of Petri nets in failure analysis enables to replace logic gate functions in fault trees, efficiently obtain minimal cut sets, and absorb models. It is demonstrated that for failure analysis Petri nets are more efficient than fault trees. In addition, this study devises an alternative; namely, a trapezoidal graph method in order to account for failure scenarios. Examples validate this novel method in dealing with failure analysis.     

A Petri Net Approach to Remote Diagnosis for Failures of Cardiac Pacemakers

This paper describes the application of Petri nets to remote diagnosis for failures of cardiac pacemakers. The operations, structures and basic control methods of the different types of cardiac pacemakers are first described. A combined synchronous pacemaker is modeled into a Petri net in this study. Twelve checkpoints are added into the modeled Petri net so as to construct a Petri net for failure diagnosis. A remote mode for failure diagnosis of implanted pacemakers is also designed by the Petri net approach. A low‐power transmitter transmits a checking‐code with 12 digits from the implanted pacemaker to the outside of the patient's body manually or automatically. By observing the markings of the checking code, the working status and the health condition of the pacemaker are clear at a glance. Applications of the Petri net method for failure diagnosis and control optimization are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reliability modelling of repairable systems using Petri nets and fuzzy Lambda–Tau methodology

A methodology is developed which uses Petri nets instead of the fault tree methodology and solves for reliability indices utilising fuzzy Lambda–Tau method. Fuzzy set theory is used for representing the failure rate and repair time instead of the classical (crisp) set theory because fuzzy numbers allow expert opinions, linguistic variables, operating conditions, uncertainty and imprecision in reliability information to be incorporated into the system model. Petri nets are used because unlike the fault tree methodology, the use of Petri nets allows efficient simultaneous generation of minimal cut and path sets.     

Implementation of Petri nets using a field‐programmable gate array

Although Petri nets have various capabilities, the Petri net approach is done on paper. A field‐programmable gate array (FPGA) is implemented in this study so as to realize basic Petri net symbols, logic structures in Petri nets, and specific functions for Petri nets by logic circuits. As an example, a Petri net for an early failure detection and isolation arrangement (EFDIA) is implemented as an application‐specific integrated circuit (ASIC) on a Xilinx Demonstration Board. This ASIC is verified by three simulations dealing with three different failure scenarios of a system, and the ASIC functions identically to the EFDIA Petri net. Accordingly, not only the EFDIA Petri net but also any specific function Petri nets can be implemented by FPGA circuits. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An algorithm to find the minimal initial markings of resource places ensuring liveness of finite-capacity S3PR

Deadlock prevention can be achieved by configuring proper initial markings to obtain a live Petri net model. For a class of Petri nets called finite-capacity Systems of Simple Sequential Processes with Resources (S³PR), an algorithm is proposed to find the minimal initial markings of resource places ensuring its liveness. First, conditions on initial markings of resource places are computed under which the strict minimal siphons (SMS) can never be emptied. Then, the minimal initial markings of resource places are computed to ensure liveness of the net. By the proposed algorithm, a live net can be obtained without changing the structure of the original model. The main practical implication of our work is that it can lower the facility cost. A simple example is used to illustrate the application of the algorithm.     

生产制造过程故障诊断Petri建模研究与实现

应用Petri网的故障诊断方法,将知识表示和诊断推理融合为一体,将反映故障的征兆库所作为初始库所和引发故障的故障库所作为目标库所,通过深度优先及可信度最大的搜索策略,得到了初始库所集合到目标库所集合的最佳路径。在推理过程中,经过一系列状态向量递推的矩阵计算,可以快速获得诊断结果。Petri网推理得出的结论与事实相一致,故而适用于现代生产制造复杂过程和系统的状态监控和故障诊断。     

Assembly/disassembly task planning and simulation using expert Petri nets

Automatic assembly/disassembly planning is recognized as an important tool for reducing the manufacturing costs in concurrent product and process development. This paper developed a knowledge-based expert Petri net model by incorporating expert system techniques in artificial intelligence into ordinary Petri nets for an analytical framework of understanding, representing and reasoning the assembly/disassembly tasks. Substantial extensions have been made to ordinary Petri nets by adding control places, time constraints, and place and transition knowledge annotations. The proposed expert Petri net model can be considered as the hybrid of expert systems and ordinary Petri nets. Through these extensions, the capacities of modelling and representation of ordinary Petri net models are largely enhanced, and thus the expert Petri net models are more powerful than ordinary Petri nets. Such intelligent Petri net models can combine the abilities of modelling, planning, and performance evaluation for assembly/disassembly tasks in an integrated and intuitive way, and can therefore be applied to either linear/non-linear, static/dynamic, or on-line/off-line assembly/disassembly tasks at both high and low levels. The developed assembly/disassembly planning system can generate the best strategies and plans for assembly/disassembly. The research findings are exemplified with a real assembly to show the effectiveness of the method.     

Simulation and analysis of reconfigurable assembly systems based on R-TNCES

ABSTRACT

Recent research indicates that dynamic reconfiguration techniques can be applied to manufacturing systems to reduce energy consumption by switching energy-intensive components in a timely manner between their working and idle modes during system runtime because these components consume less energy in their idle modes than in their working modes. The current work studies reconfigurable assembly systems with such dynamic reconfiguration techniques by abstracting them as reconfigurable discrete event systems, considering only their logic behavior and properties. The formalism, R-TNCES (reconfigurable timed net condition/event systems), a modular extension of the well-known Petri nets, is used as a system modeling and analysis tool. The simulation of system global reconfigurations is guided by command inserting, whereas the simulation of local reconfigurations is automatic because their execution time is computed a priori by a proposed algorithm. Finally, qualitative properties specified by computation tree logic and quantitative analysis regarding energy-efficiency are performed by using the software SESA.     

OpenSESAME—the simple but extensive, structured availability modeling environment

This article describes the novel stochastic modeling tool OpenSESAME which allows for a quantitative evaluation of fault-tolerant High-Availability systems. The input models are traditional reliability block diagrams (RBDs) which can be enriched with inter-component dependencies like failure propagation, failures with a common cause, different redundancy types, and non-dedicated repair. OpenSESAME offers a novel set of graphical diagrams to specify these dependencies. Due to the dependencies, traditional solution methods for RBDs cannot be applied to OpenSESAME models. We therefore present a novel evaluation method, which is based on the automatic generation of several state-based models, which are semantically equivalent to the high-level input model. Alternatively, either stochastic Petri nets or textual models based on a stochastic process algebra can be generated. The state-based models are then analyzed using existing solvers for these types of models. Three case studies exemplify the modeling power and usability of OpenSESAME.     

Intuitionistic Fuzzy Petri Nets Model Based on Back Propagation Algorithm for Information Services

Intuitionistic fuzzy Petri net is an important class of Petri nets, which can be used to model the knowledge base system based on intuitionistic fuzzy production rules. In order to solve the problem of poor self-learning ability of intuitionistic fuzzy systems, a new Petri net modeling method is proposed by introducing BP (Error Back Propagation) algorithm in neural networks. By judging whether the transition is ignited by continuous function, the intuitionistic fuzziness of classical BP algorithm is extended to the parameter learning and training, which makes Petri network have stronger generalization ability and adaptive function, and the reasoning result is more accurate and credible, which is useful for information services. Finally, a typical example is given to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the parameter optimization method.     

Petri-net based applications for supply chain management: an overview

Supply networks are discrete event dynamic systems consisting of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers. It is a difficult and challenging task to model such a complex system. Recently, characterised as being capable of model parallelism and synchronisation, Petri nets (PNs) have attracted great attention for modelling and studying a supply network. Since each type of Petri net has its unique properties to model specific applications, this paper reviews and classifies Petri net applications for supply chain management (SCM). According to the decision problems facing SCM, we have the Petri net applications classified into three areas: competitive strategy, firm focused tactics, and operational efficiency. Categorising the Petri net applications will provide a guideline to industry practitioners and research academics to choose the appropriate Petri net for the problem. In addition, the paper attempts to offer future directions in applying the Petri net to SCM including: (1) modelling with uncertainty elements; (2) addressing the scalability issue of Petri nets; (3) integrating Petri nets with other tools; and (4) extending Petri nets to emerging applications.     

Expert Enhanced Coloured Stochastic Petri Net and its application in assembly/disassembly

This article comprises of an Expert Enhanced Coloured Stochastic Petri Net (rule base system, or RBS) for modelling and analysing assembly/disassembly systems. RBSs are an Enhanced High-level Petri net extended with Close-World-Assumption (CWA). Traditional Petri nets can be used to model RBSs containing explicitly described knowledge. The main focus was is to facilitate and analyse the process planning activities of assembly/disassembly. The advantages of the new modelling approach were: (1) consideration of the non-desirable events, (2) occurrence of assembly/disassembly tasks with regard to colour of the tokens and utilization of probability concept to determine feasible steps, (3) establishing a relationship among components by means of arc labels, and (4) deeper insight into the assembly/disassembly process using high- and low-level petri nets.     

An enhanced component connection method for conversion of fault trees to binary decision diagrams

Fault tree analysis (FTA) is widely applied to assess the failure probability of industrial systems. Many computer packages are available, which are based on conventional kinetic tree theory methods. When dealing with large (possibly non-coherent) fault trees, the limitations of the technique in terms of accuracy of the solutions and the efficiency of the processing time become apparent. Over recent years, the binary decision diagram (BDD) method has been developed that solves fault trees and overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional FTA approach. First of all, a fault tree for a particular system failure mode is constructed and then converted to a BDD for analysis. This paper analyses alternative methods for the fault tree to BDD conversion process.For most fault tree to BDD conversion approaches, the basic events of the fault tree are placed in an ordering. This can dramatically affect the size of the final BDD and the success of qualitative and quantitative analyses of the system. A set of rules is then applied to each gate in the fault tree to generate the BDD. An alternative approach can also be used, where BDD constructs for each of the gate types are first built and then merged to represent a parent gate. A powerful and efficient property, sub-node sharing, is also incorporated in the enhanced method proposed in this paper. Finally, a combined approach is developed taking the best features of the alternative methods. The efficiency of the techniques is analysed and discussed.     

A transformation from a Boolean equation control specification to a Petri net

In this article we present an algorithm to transform a set(s) of Boolean equations into a Petri net(s). Boolean logic provides a mathematical basis for switching control and many other areas. In the case of programmable logic controllers used for the sequential control in manufacturing applications, Boolean equations are fundamental both in programming and in understanding their operation. A major difficulty with Boolean equations is the lack of any type of mathematical theory for the analysis of the systems that are being represented by these equations. Petri nets, on the other hand, possess a mathematical framework to analyze the properties of the system being modeled. Furthermore, Petri nets have been proved to be appropriate models for sequential control. The popularity as well as the generality of Boolean logic, on one hand, and the modeling and analytical capabilities of Petri nets, on the other hand, are the major motivations for this research.     

Fault tree developed by an object-based method improves requirements specification for safety-related systems

Fault tree analysis is frequently used to improve system reliability and safety. To be suitable for analysis of software in computerised safety-related systems, it has to be modified accordingly. This paper presents a new application: the fault trees developed by an object-based method. The object-based method integrates structural and behavioural models of a system. The developed fault tree includes information on structure and the failure behaviours of classes of the system. Away from traditional use of the fault tree, which for traditional systems emphasises qualitative and quantitative results, the result of the new application emphasises the process of fault tree development and its qualitative results. Such fault tree application reduces the probability of failures in the requirements specification phase within the software life cycle, which increases the reliability of its product; however, it does not confirm this in a quantitative manner.