A unified high-level Petri net formalism for time-critical systems

The authors introduce a high-level Petri net formalism-environment/relationship (ER) nets-which can be used to specify control, function, and timing issues. In particular, they discuss how time can be modeled via ER nets by providing a suitable axiomatization. They use ER nets to define a time notation that is shown to generalize most time Petri-net-based formalisms which appeared in the literature. They discuss how ER nets can be used in a specification support environment for a time-critical system and, in particular, the kind of analysis supported     

Parametric fault tree for the dependability analysis of redundant systems and its high-level Petri net semantics

In order to cope efficiently with the dependability analysis of redundant systems with replicated units, a new, more compact fault-tree formalism, called Parametric Fault Tree (PFT), is defined. In a PFT formalism, replicated units are folded and indexed so that only one representative of the similar replicas is included in the model. From the PFT, a list of parametric cut sets can be derived, where only the relevant patterns leading to the system failure are evidenced regardless of the actual identity of the component in the cut set. The paper provides an algorithm to convert a PFT into a class of High-Level Petri Nets, called SWN. The purpose of this conversion is twofold: to exploit the modeling power and flexibility of the SWN formalism, allowing the analyst to include statistical dependencies that could not have been accommodated into the corresponding PFT and to exploit the capability of the SWN formalism to generate a lumped Markov chain, thus alleviating the state explosion problem. The search for the minimal cut sets (qualitative analysis) can be often performed by a structural T-invariant analysis on the generated SWN. The advantages that can be obtained from the translation of a PFT into a SWN are investigated considering a fault-tolerant multiprocessor system example.     

Logical inference of Horn clauses in Petri net models

Petri net models for the Horn clause form of propositional logic and of first-order predicate logic are studied. A net model for logical inconsistency check is proposed. Algorithms for computing T-invariants of Petri net models of logical inference systems are investigated. The algorithms are based on the idea of resolution and exploit the presence of one-literal, pure-literal, and splitting clauses to lead to faster computation. Algorithms for computing T-invariants of high-level Petri net (HLPN) models of predicate logic are presented     

Monitoring of flexible production systems using high-level Petri net specifications

The degree of reliability in the operation of flexible production systems depends not only on the operation of the individual components, but also on the structure and evolution of the embedded supervisory control system. Monitoring of operations and of the behaviour of the components and of the system as a whole is an essential function of such a supervisory control system. This paper focuses on the development and implementation of feature- and model-based monitoring methods using high-level Petri net specifications of flexible production systems and of the embedded discrete-event controllers. The combination of machine–human interface concepts with the developed monitoring methods leads to a user-friendly representation of monitoring information. An application at industrial level is shown by means of a case study, i.e., a sample flexible assembly cell, situated at the Institute for Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems, Germany.     

A compositional dataflow semantics for Petri nets

We give a semantics for place/transition nets, which describes the input/out-put behaviour using fixed point techniques. The semantics is shown to be compositional w.r.t. the net operators parallel composition, feedback and output merging. We prove consistency with the step sequence semantics and thus give an equivalent operational semantics.This work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 342     

Giving semantics to SA/RT by means of high-level timed Petri nets

In the IPTES project a dual language approach is proposed for overcoming both the problems derived from the use of a user-friendly, high-level, but not-formally-defined language and from a lower-level, formal, but difficult-to-use language. The approach uses a user-friendly, high-level language as user interface and a lower-level, formal language asmachine language. In this way the users can both access the IPTES environment through a nice interface and can profit from non-ambiguity-checks and proofs algorithms based on the formal kernel machine language. The correspondence between the two languages is built-in in the IPTES environment that provides a transparent mapping mechanism that relates the users specifications expressed by means of the high-level interface-language with the formal definitions expressed in the formal machine language.This paper presents the mapping mechanism that relates the current IPTES user interface (SA/RT (Ward and Mellor 1985)) with the IPTES machine language (high-level timed Petri nets (Ghezzi, Mandrioli, Morasca and Pezzé 1991)). As a side effect, it also presents the formal semantics of SA/RT defined by means of high-level timed Petri nets.This material is based upon work supported by the CEC under the ESPRIT program project no. EP5570 IPTES, by the Piano Finalizzato Sistemi Informatici e Calcolo Parallelo (CNR) and by The Technical Development Centre of Finland (TEKES).     

PROTEAN: a high-level Petri net tool for the specification andverification of communication protocols

The PROTEAN protocol emulation and analysis computer aid is presented. It is based on a formal specification technique called numerical Petri nets (NPNs), and provides both graphical (color) and textual interfaces to the protocol designer. NPN specifications may be created, stored, appended to other NPNs, structured, edited, listed, displayed, and analyzed. Interactive simulation, exhaustive reachability analysis, and several directed graph analysis facilities are described. Specification languages are compared, with concentration on extended finite state machines and high-level Petri nets. Both the NPN and PROTEAN facilities are described and illustrated with a simple example. The application of PROTEAN to complex examples is mentioned briefly. Work towards a comprehensive protocol engineering workstation is also discussed     

A Petri nets semantics for data flow networks

This work presents a truly concurrent operational semantics for nondeterministic data flow networks. We introduce a model, the df-process, which is a notion similar to that of non-sequential process for a Petri net: a df-process is defined as a mapping from an occurrence net K to a data flow net N, such that the places and the transitions of K are mapped onto the channels and the nodes of N. A df-process contains, by means of some labelling of the places, information on the value and the order in which data flow through the channels during a computation. Df-processes for a data flow network are characterized in an abstract way by a set of properties and in general a df-process corresponds to a set of computations of the network. We give a way to build the df-process corresponding to a computation incrementally at each event occurrence: a main result of the paper is that the incremental construction yields exactly the same set of df-processes as abstractly defined. We also show that df-processes are compositional. The model is intended to be used by distributed systems designers: it contains enough information to be a guideline for the designer and to be a base to develop dynamic checking tools. We outline how df-processes can be used in the design phase of a system.Research supported in part by Progetto Coordinato CNR ANATRA     

A reasoning algorithm for high-level fuzzy Petri nets

We introduce an automated procedure for extracting information from knowledge bases that contain fuzzy production rules. The knowledge bases considered here are modeled using the high-level fuzzy Petri nets proposed by the authors in the past. Extensions to the high-level fuzzy Petri net model are given to include the representation of partial sources of information. The case of rules with more than one variable in the consequent is also discussed. A reasoning algorithm based on the high-level fuzzy Petri net model is presented. The algorithm consists of the extraction of a subnet and an evaluation process. In the evaluation process, several fuzzy inference methods can be applied. The proposed algorithm is similar to another procedure suggested by Yager (1983), with advantages concerning the knowledge-base searching when gathering the relevant information to answer a particular kind of query     

A Petri net model for probabilistic logic

In this article we investigate the use of Petri nets for the representation of possible worlds in probabilistic logic. We propose a method to generate possible worlds based upon the reachability tree of the Petri net model. The number of columns in the matrix of possible worlds grows exponentially with the problem size. Nilsson [Proceedings of 1976 National Computer Conference and Readings in Artificial Intelligence, Morgan Kaufmann, Los Altos, CA, 1981, pp. 192-199] suggested a method to generate only those columns of the possible world matrix that are likely to be important for the solution. We provide Petri net models for the method suggested by Nilsson and show that they lead to intuitive and simple computational methods. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A methodology of testing high-level Petri nets

Petri nets have been extensively used in the modelling and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems. The verification and validation of Petri nets are of particular importance in the development of concurrent and distributed systems. As a complement to formal analysis techniques, testing has been proven to be effective in detecting system errors and is easy to apply. An open problem is how to test Petri nets systematically, effectively and efficiently. An approach to solve this problem is to develop test criteria so that test adequacy can be measured objectively and test cases can be generated efficiently, even automatically. In this paper, we present a methodology of testing high-level Petri nets based on our general theory of testing concurrent software systems. Four types of testing strategies are investigated, which include state-oriented testing, transition-oriented testing, flow-oriented testing and specification-oriented testing. For each strategy, a set of schemes to observe and record testing results and a set of coverage criteria to measure test adequacy are defined. The subsumption relationships and extraction relationships among the proposed testing methods are systematically investigated and formally proved.     

The implementation of a smartphone-based fall detection system using a high-level fuzzy Petri net

The falling down problem has become one of the very important issues of global public health in an aging society. The specific equipment was adopted as the detection device of falling-down in the early studies, but it is inconvenient for the elderly and difficult for future application. The smart phone more commonly used than the specific fall detection equipment is selected as a mobile device for human fall detection, and a fall detection algorithm is developed for this purpose. What the user has to do is to put the smart phone in his/her thigh pocket for falling down detection. The signals detected by the tri-axial G-sensor are converted into signal vector magnitudes as the basis of detecting a human body in a stalling condition. The Z-axis data sets are captured for identification of human body inclination and the occurrence frequencies at the peak of the area of use are used as the input parameters. A high-level fuzzy Petri net is used for the analysis and the development of identifying human actions, including normal action, exercising, and falling down. The results of this study can be used in the relevant equipments or in the field of home nursing.     

A survey of content-based image retrieval with high-level semantics

In order to improve the retrieval accuracy of content-based image retrieval systems, research focus has been shifted from designing sophisticated low-level feature extraction algorithms to reducing the ‘semantic gap’ between the visual features and the richness of human semantics. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive survey of the recent technical achievements in high-level semantic-based image retrieval. Major recent publications are included in this survey covering different aspects of the research in this area, including low-level image feature extraction, similarity measurement, and deriving high-level semantic features. We identify five major categories of the state-of-the-art techniques in narrowing down the ‘semantic gap’: (1) using object ontology to define high-level concepts; (2) using machine learning methods to associate low-level features with query concepts; (3) using relevance feedback to learn users’ intention; (4) generating semantic template to support high-level image retrieval; (5) fusing the evidences from HTML text and the visual content of images for WWW image retrieval. In addition, some other related issues such as image test bed and retrieval performance evaluation are also discussed. Finally, based on existing technology and the demand from real-world applications, a few promising future research directions are suggested.     

π演算的Petri网语义研究

为弥补π演算的固有缺陷．提出一种将π演算映射为Petri网语义的方法．该方法将π演算分为基本单元、顺序、并发、选择和递归等几种基本结构．分别映射为Petri网．然后复合构成复杂的系统．π演算的Petri网语义可形象地描述系统的物理结构和动态行为，可直接从模型网络结构上定性分析系统的性质．最后,利用该方法将移动汽车网络的π演算模型映射为Petri网，验证了方法的有效性．     

A fixpoint semantics of Horn sentences based on substitution sets

The formal semantics of a given Horn sentence is usually defined as a set of ground atoms, which is really the minimal Herbrand interpretation of the Horn sentence, by both model-theoretic and fixpoint approaches. In the present paper, we propose another denotational semantics of a Horn sentence, denoting the set of substitutions with which atoms are derivable by unit deduction from the Horn sentence to get a direct correspondence between the semantics of the Horn sentence and the answer set concerned with its computation, and give denotational semantics even when the Horn sentence is unsatisfiable. In accordance with the unit deductions from a Horn sentence, we define a continuous function from a direct product of powersets of a substitution set to itself, and regard the least fixpoint of the function as the semantics, which can provide the answer set for computations of the Horn sentence.     

Reinforcement learning for high-level fuzzy Petri nets

The author has developed a reinforcement learning algorithm for the high-level fuzzy Petri net (HLFPN) models in order to perform structure and parameter learning simultaneously. In addition to the HLFPN itself, the difference and similarity among a variety of subclasses concerning Petri nets are also discussed. As compared with the fuzzy adaptive learning control network (FALCON), the HLFPN model preserves the advantages that: 1) it offers more flexible learning capability because it is able to model both IF-THEN and IF-THEN-ELSE rules; 2) it allows multiple heterogeneous outputs to be drawn if they exist; 3) it offers a more compact data structure for fuzzy production rules so as to save information storage; and 4) it is able to learn faster due to its structural reduction. Finally, main results are presented in the form of seven propositions and supported by some experiments.     

A generalized fuzzy Petri net model

The paper proposes a new model of Petri nets based on the use of logic based neurons. In contrast to the existing generalizations, this approach is aimed at neural-type modeling of the entire concept with a full exploitation of the learning capabilities of the processing units being used there. The places and transitions of the net are represented by OR and AND-type and DOMINANCE neurons, respectively. A correspondence between this model and the previous two-valued counterpart is also revealed. The learning aspects associated with the nets are investigated     

A Petri net based approach for multi-robot path planning

This paper presents a procedure for creating a probabilistic finite-state model for mobile robots and for finding a sequence of controllers ensuring the highest probability for reaching some desired regions. The approach starts by using results for controlling affine systems in simpliceal partitions, and then it creates a finite-state representation with history-based probabilities on transitions. This representation is embedded into a Petri Net model with probabilistic costs on transitions, and a highest probability path to reach a set of target regions is found. An online supervising procedure updates the paths whenever a robot deviates from the intended trajectory. The proposed probabilistic framework may prove suitable for controlling mobile robots based on more complex specifications.     

A comparison of two Petri net types

In this article we pick up a problem stated in [1], namely the question whether PNlog-nets allow to solve synchronization problems not solvable by ordinary Petri nets under certain simulation rules. We show that a slight and reasonable strengthening of the simulation rules defined in [1] enables us to answer the raised question in the positive. As will be pointed out in the introduction, with this result we “partially” solve the original problem.