Solving resource contention problem in FMS using Petri nets and a rule-based approach

The present work focuses on the development of a shop floor controller (SFC) using Petri nets and a rule-based approach. An FMS consisting of three workstations with in-process buffers and two robots is taken as a case study. Stochastic Petri nets are used to model various activities in the manufacturing system. A new concept of P-Levels is introduced for the solution of problems of resource contention and circular wait by assigning priorities to the claimant parts in a multibatch manufacturing system. A case study also shows the capabilities of the developed system controller with relevant results. Various possibilities about the number of batches processed simultaneously are considered for the example case.     

Transient inter-production scheduling based on Petri nets and constraint programming

In this article, we focus on the transient inter-production scheduling problem between two cyclic productions in the framework of flexible manufacturing systems. This problem is first formulated as a reachability problem in timed Petri nets (TPN), then solved using a methodology based on constraint programming. Our work is based on the controlled executions proposed by Chretienne to model the sequence of transition firing dates. Our methodology is based on a preliminary resolution of the state equation between initial and final states in the underlying non-TPN. Then, we choose a duration T _max corresponding to the maximal duration time of the scheduling. For each solution S of the state equation, we build a controlled execution from the sequence of firings in S. After the propagation of firing date constraints and reachability constraints in the TPN, we use constraint programming to enumerate the set of feasible controlled executions.     

Real-time deadlock-free scheduling for semiconductor track systems based on colored timed Petri nets

This paper addresses the problem of real-time deadlock-free scheduling for a semiconductor track system. The system is required to process wafers continuously, cassette by cassette. The process is not necessarily a repeated one. In addition, the system is deadlock-prone and its modules are failure-prone. Thus, real-time scheduling approaches are required to achieve high-performance. The problem can be solved in a hierarchical way. A deadlock avoidance policy is developed for the system as a lower-layer controller. With the support of the deadlock avoidance policy, heuristic rules are proposed to schedule the system in real-time. An effective modeling tool, colored–timed resource-oriented Petri net, is presented. It is shown that with this model we can schedule a system to achieve satisfactory results in real-time. This method is tolerant to module failures.     

A competitive neural network approach to multi-objective FMS scheduling

The main contribution of this paper is the development of a multi-objective FMS scheduler which is designed to maximally satisfy the desired values of multiple objectives set by the operator. For each production interval, a decision rule for each decision variable is chosen by the FMS scheduler. A competitive neural network is applied to present fast but good decision rules to the operator. A unique feature of the FMS scheduler is that the competitive neural network generates the next decision rules based on the current decision rules, system status and performance measures. A commercial FMS is simulated to prove the effectiveness of the FMS scheduler. The result shows that the FMS scheduler can successfully satisfy multiple objectives.     

Petri nets and genetic algorithms for complex manufacturing systems scheduling

In this paper we propose the GAPN (genetic algorithms and Petri nets) approach, which combines the modelling power of Petri nets with the optimisation capability of genetic algorithms (GAs) for manufacturing systems scheduling. This approach uses both Petri nets to formulate the scheduling problem and GAs for scheduling. Its primary advantage is its ability to model a wide variety of manufacturing systems with no modifications either in the net structure or in the chromosomal representation. In this paper we tested the performance on both classical scheduling problems and on a real life setting of a manufacturer of car seat covers. In particular, such a manufacturing system involves features such as complex project-like routings, assembly operations, and workstations with unrelated parallel machines. The implementation of the algorithm at the company is also discussed. Experiments show the validity of the proposed approach.     

Deadlock prevention policy based on Petri nets and siphons

This paper presents a deadlock prevention method for a class of flexible manufacturing systems where deadlocks are caused by unmarked siphons in their Petri net models. This method is an iterative approach consisting of two main stages. At each iteration, a fast deadlock detection technique developed by mixed integer programming is used to find an unmarked maximal siphon. An algorithm is formalized that can efficiently obtain an unmarked minimal siphon from the maximal siphon. The first stage, called siphons control, of the proposed method is to add, for each unmarked minimal siphons, a control place to the original net with its output arcs to the sink transitions of the minimal siphon. The objective is to prevent a minimal siphon from being unmarked. The second stage, called augmented siphons control, is to add a control place to the modified net with its output arcs to the source transitions of the resultant net if the resource places are removed. The second stage is required since adding control places in the first stage may create new unmarked siphons. In addition, the second stage assures that there are no new unmarked siphons generated. The relation of the proposed method and the liveness and reversibility of the controlled net have been obtained. Finally, manufacturing examples are presented to illustrate the method and to allow comparison with earlier methods.     

Supply chain configuration with co-ordinated product,process and logistics decisions: an approach based on Petri nets

Supply chain configuration lends itself to be an effective means to deal with product differentiation and customisation throughout a supply chain network. It essentially entails the instantiation of a generic supply chain network to specific supply chains in accordance with diverse customer requirements. The lynchpin of supply chain configuration lies in the co-ordination of product, process and logistics decisions in relation to a variety of customer orders. This paper aims to provide modelling support to supply chain configuration. The ultimate goal is to assist companies to form appropriate supply chains with the most added-value to customer order fulfillment. A formalism based on coloured Petri nets is developed for configuring supply chains. System models are built upon the coloured Petri nets and used to incorporate product and process concerns into the supply chain configuration process. An industrial case study is reported to illustrate the potential of the coloured Petri net modelling formalism and the built system models for supply chain configuration.     

Think globally act locally approach for the synthesis of a liveness-enforcing supervisor of FMSs based on Petri nets

This paper, by using Petri nets (PNs), reports a general approach, called a think globally, act locally (TGAL) method, to compute liveness-enforcing supervisors (LES) for flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) prone to deadlocks. A place called global sink/source place (GP) is introduced provisionally help us to decide a set of monitors such that deadlock states can be removed. The TGAL method proceeds with liveness enforcement by an iterative way in which a complete state enumeration is computed at each step. The resulting LES is generally maximally permissive or suboptimal, without solving intractable integer linear programming (ILP) problems. Given a system, a sufficient condition is developed to decide whether the TGAL method can find maximally permissive, that is, optimal supervisors. Several typical FMSs popularly studied in the literature are used as the examples to demonstrate the proposed method.     

Decomposition in automatic generation of Petri nets for manufacturing system control and scheduling

Despite the efforts in developing Petri net models for manufacturing control and scheduling, the generation of Petri net models cannot be automated for agile manufacturing control and scheduling without difficulties. The problems lie in the complexity of Petri net models. First of all, it is difficult to visualize the basic manufacturing process flow in a complex Petri net model even for a Petri net modelling expert. The second problem is related to the complexity of using Petri net models for manufacturing system scheduling. In this paper, a decomposition methodology in automatic generation of Petri nets for manufacturing system control and scheduling is developed. The decomposition methodology includes representing a manufacturing process with the Integrated Definition 3 (IDEF3) methodology, decomposing the manufacturing process based on the similarity of resources, transforming the IDEF3 model into a Petri net control model, and aggregating sub Petri net models. Specifically, a sequential cluster identification algorithm is developed to decompose a manufacturing system represented as an IDEF3 model. The methodology is illustrated with a flexible disassembly cell example. The computational experience shows that the methodology developed in this paper reduces the computational time complexity of the scheduling problem without significantly affecting the solution quality obtained by a simulated annealing scheduling algorithm. The advantages of the methodology developed in this paper include the combined benefits of simplicity of the IDEF3 representation of manufacturing processes and analytical and control properties of Petri net models. The IDEF3 representation of a manufacturing process enhances the manmachine interface.     

Deadlock-free genetic scheduling for flexible manufacturing systems using Petri nets and deadlock controllers

In this paper, a new deadlock-free scheduling method based on genetic algorithm and Petri net models of flexible manufacturing systems is proposed. The optimisation criterion is to minimise the makespan. In the proposed genetic scheduling algorithm, a candidate schedule is represented by a chromosome that consists of two sections: route selection and operation sequence. With the support of a deadlock controller, a repairing algorithm is proposed to check the feasibility of each chromosome and fix infeasible chromosomes to feasible ones. A feasible chromosome can be easily decoded to a deadlock-free schedule, which is a sequence of transitions without deadlocks. Different kinds of crossover and mutation operations are performed on two sections of the chromosome, respectively, to improve the performance of the presented algorithm. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm can get better schedules. Furthermore, the proposed scheduling method provides a new approach to evaluate the performance of different deadlock controllers.     

Optimisation of block erection scheduling based on a Petri net and discrete PSO

The shipyard block erection system (SBES) is a typical discrete-event dynamic system. To model multiprocessing paths and a concurrent assembly procedure, a timed Petri net (TPN) is proposed. The definition of a Petri net is extended to accord with the real-world SBES organisation. The basic TPN modules are presented to model the corresponding variable structures in the SBES, and then the scheduling model of the whole SBES is easily constructed. A modified discrete particle swarm optimisation (PSO) based on the reachability analysis of Petri nets is developed for scheduling of the SBES. In the proposed algorithm, particles are coded by welding transitions and selecting places of the TPN model, and then the collaboration and competition of particle individuals is simulated by crossover and mutation operators in a genetic algorithm. Numerical simulation suggests that the proposed TPN–PSO scheduler can provide an improvement over the conventional scheduling method. Finally, a case study of the optimisation of a back block erection process is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Disassembly sequence generation: A Petri net based heuristic approach

The generation of a set of optimal or near-optimal disassembly sequences is an important task associated with the study of disassembly planning. This task encapsulates actions at the required disassembly depth to reach maximum net revenue while satisfying economic constraints. The Petri net modelling, combined with heuristic search procedures developed in this study, offers an efficient procedure for disassembly sequence generation. The heuristic generates and searches a partial reachability graph to arrive at an optimal or near-optimal disassembly sequence based on the firing sequence of transitions of the Petri net model. The proposed methodology reduces the search space in two areas: (1) pruning the disassembly tree (DT) and, (2) selective tracking of the reachability graph. The efficacy of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by using two examples from the literature.     

Scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems based on Petri nets and hybrid heuristic search

This paper proposes and evaluates a hybrid search strategy and its application to flexible manufacturing system (FMS) scheduling in a Petri net framework. Petri nets can concisely model multiple lot sizes for each job, the strict precedence constraint, multiple kinds of resources, and concurrent activities. To cope with the complexities for FMS scheduling, this paper presents a hybrid heuristic search strategy, which combines the heuristic A* strategy with the DF strategy based on the execution of the Petri nets. The search scheme can invoke quicker termination conditions, and the quality of the search result is controllable. To demonstrate this, the scheduling results are derived and evaluated through a simple FMS with multiple lot sizes for each job. The algorithm is also applied to a set of randomly generated more complex FMSs with such characteristics as limited buffer sizes, multiple resources, and alternative routings.     

基于随机Petri网的铜带拉弯矫直机可用度分析

为了合理确定铜带拉弯矫直机的校验周期,提高其生产效率,确保其矫直精度,根据某铜板带公司拉弯矫直机9个月的维修数据,对拉弯矫直机的失效模式进行随机Petri网建模,将系统失效模式转换成相应的随机Petri网;基于马尔科夫过程对随机Petri网进行瞬态概率求解,并得到该拉弯矫直机失效模式的稳态概率;利用或门对应的随机Petri网模型分析,计算不同校验周期下拉弯矫直机的可用度.综合考虑设备可用度和经济效益,确定了合理的校验周期,为拉弯矫直机的长周期运行提供了依据.     

基于有色Petri网的产品协同开发过程建模方法研究

产品协同开发过程具有层次性、分布性、离散性和动态性等特点,采用合理方法构建其有效的过程模型成为协同开发过程管理与优化的基础性条件.将有色Petri网(CPN)技术引入产品协同开发过程建模中,针对性地提出了产品协同开发过程CPN模型的描述性定义;并从协同开发特点出发,为支持基本过程逻辑的描述由工作流原语定义了基本网模型结构;为了描述复杂协同关系,结合模块化方法及库所变迁性质给出了扩展网模型结构的构建方法.该方法实现了将协同开发过程关系从基本到复杂都能映射到相应CPN网上,并通过实例进一步说明了该方法的有效性.     

Reactive scheduling in a dynamic and stochastic FMS environment

In this paper, we study the reactive scheduling problems in a dynamic and stochastic manufacturing environment. Specifically, we develop a simulation-based scheduling system for flexible manufacturing systems. We also propose several reactive scheduling policies (i.e. when-to-schedule and how-to-schedule policies) and test their performances under various experimental conditions, processing time variations, and machine breakdowns. Moreover, we compare offline and online scheduling schemes in a dynamic manufacturing environment. The results of extensive simulation experiments indicate that the variable-time-response is better than the fixed-time-response. The full scheduling scheme generally performs better than the partial scheduling. Finally, the online scheduling is more robust to uncertainty and variations in processing times than the optimum-seeking offline scheduling. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided in the paper.     

FMS machine loading: A simulated annealing approach

In this paper the problem of FMS machine loading is considered with the objective of minimizing the system imbalance using a simulated annealing (SA) approach. New job sequences are generated with a proposed perturbation scheme named the 'modified insertion scheme' (MIS). These sequences are used in the proposed simulated annealing algorithm to arrive at a near global optimum solution. A new approach for temperature variation in the SA algorithm is also suggested in which temperature is assumed to be parabolic. The SA algorithm using the proposed MIS and the assumed temperature variation proved to be giving substantial improvement in system imbalance as against conventional sequences.     

PN PLC: A methodology for designing,simulating and coding PLC based control systems using Petri nets

Flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs) are well established as a means of improving manufacturing efficiency in many batch production industries. They consist of an integrated group of computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools, programmable logic controller (PLC) based work/tool handling equipment and a control system to synchronize their operation. The safe and reliable operation of FMCs is clearly essential for their efficient use. However, FMCs are complex systems with elements that operate concurrently and interact at irregular times, depending upon the components to be produced. This inherent complexity demands intricate and sophisticated control systems which require development methodologies that are both comprehensive and rigorous. In this paper the authors introduce a methodology (PN PLC) which uses Petri nets for producing correct programmable logic controller (PLC) programs directly from the specifications. The methodology is specifically contrasted with the benefits, and problems, encountered in using tools such as 'ladder diagrams' (LDs) and 'sequential function charts' (SFCs) for designing logical control systems. PN PLC has advantages over ladder logic in clarity, which allows the program to be checked, maintained and updated reliably. Furthermore, the Petri net graph is a one-to-one equivalent of a ladder logic diagram, and thus either representation may be algorithmically translated to the other without loss of information. Finally, the rules for creating Petri net graphs, and subsequently translating them, are both simple and robust in use.