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.     

Robotic disassembly sequence planning using enhanced discrete bees algorithm in remanufacturing

Increasing attention is being paid to remanufacturing due to environmental protection and resource saving. Disassembly, as an essential step of remanufacturing, is always manually finished which is time-consuming while robotic disassembly can improve disassembly efficiency. Before the execution of disassembly, generating optimal disassembly sequence plays a vital role in improving disassembly efficiency. In this paper, to minimise the total disassembly time, an enhanced discrete Bees algorithm (EDBA) is proposed to solve robotic disassembly sequence planning (RDSP) problem. Firstly, the modified feasible solution generation (MFSG) method is used to build the disassembly model. After that, the evaluation criterions for RDSP are proposed to describe the total disassembly time of a disassembly sequence. Then, with the help of mutation operator, EDBA is proposed to determine the optimal disassembly sequence of RDSP. Finally, case studies based on two gear pumps are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The performance of EDBA is analysed under different parameters and compared with existing optimisation algorithms used in disassembly sequence planning (DSP). The result shows the proposed method is more suitable for robotic disassembly than the traditional method and EDBA generates better quality of solutions compared with the other optimisation algorithms.     

Modelling an automated storage and retrieval system using Petri nets

We investigated the feasibility of using stochastic Petri nets (SPNs) to describe the behaviours of automated storage/retrieval systems as well as to evaluate the performance of different control policies of such systems. SPNs have been studied in the past 2 decades, and have become a powerful tool in modelling concurrent and distributed systems that exhibit synchronization and contention of shared resources. It appeared that some important characteristics of AS/RS could be well modelled with SPNs. The SPN is a graph-based tool suitable for modelling systems (manufacturing, computer, biological, etc.). It can be used to model a system at different levels of abstraction. In this study, the efficiency, control rules, bay assignment, and many other performance issues associated with AS/RS have been studied in detail using SPN models. SPNs are shown to be equivalent to the stochastic processes in which embedded Markov chains can be recognized. In addition, a stochastic Petri net package, SPNP, was adopted to solve the reachability trees from which an embedded Markov chain was generated. Finally, the performance of those systems of our interest was evaluated. The unique features and flexibility of SPNs are presented. Furthermore, the SPN models for different control algorithms of an AS/RS are discussed with examples.     

Integrated assembly and disassembly sequence planning using a GA approach

In a product life cycle, an assembly sequence is required to produce a new product at the start, whereas a disassembly sequence is needed at the end. In typical assembly and disassembly sequence planning approaches, the two are performed as two independent tasks. In this way, a good assembly sequence may contradict the cost considerations in the disassembly sequence, and vice versa. In this research, an integrated assembly and disassembly sequence planning model is presented. First, an assembly precedence graph (APG) and a disassembly precedence graph (DPG) are modelled. The two graphs are transformed into an assembly precedence matrix (APM) and a disassembly precedence matrix (DPM). Second, a two-loop genetic algorithm (GA) method is applied to generate and evaluate the solutions. The outer loop of the GA method performs assembly sequence planning. In the inner loop, the reverse order of the assembly sequence solution is used as the initial solution for disassembly sequence planning. A cost objective by integrating the assembly costs and disassembly costs is formulated as the fitness function. The test results show that the developed method using the GA approach is suitable and efficient for the integrated assembly and disassembly sequence planning. Example products are demonstrated and discussed.     

Modelling and analysis of wafer fabrication scheduling via generalized stochastic Petri net and simulated annealing

Some of the important characteristics of the semiconductor wafer fabrication factories are re-entrant process flows, a dynamic and uncertain environment, stringent production control requirements, etc. that pose a major challenge to the scheduling decisions in integrated circuit wafer fabrication process. Keeping in view the high capital investment and quick response to the market changes, it is essential for the integrated circuit fabrication process to exercise effective control on its production operations so that production resources can be employed in a flexible and efficient manner. The present research has focussed on the development of a generalized stochastic Petri net model that faithfully captures dynamic behaviours such as re-entrant processing, machine failures, loading and unloading, etc., pertaining to wafer fabrication. A simulated annealing-based scheduling strategy using mean cycle time and tardiness as performance measures was also developed to obtain an efficient and robust schedule for a known hard problem. Analysis of variance was applied to examine the interaction effects of various scheduling rules and to identify the main as well as the interaction effects of dispatching rules, dispatching rules and set-up rules, and set-up rules and batching rules. Paired t-tests were applied to assess the performance of rule combinations for lot and batch scheduling. The proposed simulated annealing-based solution methodology was tested on a well-known data set adopted from the literature and its performance reveals that simulated annealing-based scheduling rules work better than existing rules in terms of the two performance measures mean cycle time and tardiness.     

Deadlock avoidance in an automated guidance vehicle system using a coloured Petri net model

This paper addresses the problem of deadlock control in automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems for automated manufacturing systems with unidirectinal guided paths. First, a Petri net (PN) model was developed for the problem. Then, by using the PN model developed, the condition for deadlock-free operation in AGV system and a control law are presented. To avoid deadlocks in AGV systems by this law, one needs only to observe the state of the system and check the number of free spaces available in some of the circuits. It is estimated that the proposed control law is simple enough to be used in the real-time control of contemporary system configuration. Three examples are used to show the application and efficiency of the proposed control law.     

Setup planning using Hopfield net and simulated annealing

This paper reports a new approach to setup planning of prismatic parts using Hopfield neural net coupled with simulated annealing. The approach deals with setup planning in two stages, i.e.: (1) sequence all the features of a workpiece according to geometric and technological constraints; and (2) identify setups from the sequenced features. In the first stage, the task of feature sequencing is converted to a constraint optimization problem (COP) which is similar to the travelling salesman problem (TSP). The setup time due to setup and tool changes is incorporated into the 'distance' between features, while the precedence and critical tolerance relationships between features are treated as constraints. The Hopfield neural net approach for TSP, i.e. energy function, is adopted to model the COP mathematically where the constraints are attached as additional penalty functions. Simulated annealing is then used to search for the minimum energy state of the net while avoiding the local minima. The feature sequence obtained aims at minimizing the number of setups and tool changes while ensuring little or no violation of feature precedence relationship, thus keeping critical tolerance violation to a minimum. In the second stage, setups are generated from the sequenced features using a vector intersection approach based on common tool approach directions. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. A comparison study between this approach and an existing integer programming setup planning system is also given which indicates the superior efficiency of the proposed approach when dealing with problems with large number of features.     

Modelling and simulation of a bottling plant using hybrid Petri nets

In this paper we use First–Order Hybrid Petri nets (FOHPN), an hybrid model that combines fluid and discrete event dynamics, to model the concurrent activities of manufacturing systems. In particular we consider an existing mineral water bottling plant and we show how the FOHPN model is extremely suited to describe the high-throughput production lines, that are one of the main components in the considered plant. Some variations with respect to the previous definition of the FOHPN model are also introduced here to better describe the behavior of the conveyor lines. Finally, we show that, thanks to the fluid approximation of some discrete-event dynamics, the considered plant may also be efficiently simulated using FOHPN. This also enabled us to identify, among the most commonly used configurations of the plant, which are the optimal working conditions in terms of maximal throughput and net profit.     

e-Commerce and supply chains: Modelling of dynamics through fuzzy enhanced high level petri net

Although information plays a major role in effective functioning of supply chain networks (SCNs), studies that deal specifically with the dynamics of supply chains are few. This problem is relatively new since fast communications and the means to employ it for effective management of supply chains did not exist till recently. In order to provide a vehicle for dynamic modelling and analysis of supply chain operations in vague and uncertain environments, we propose a fuzzy enhanced high level petri net (FEHLPN) model. The proposed model captures the capability of petri nets for graphical and analytical representation of dynamic SCNs with the management of uncertain information provided by fuzzy logic. The dynamics associated with two production planning and control policies are modelled, viz. make-to-stock and assemble-to-order in vague and ambiguous situations in electronic commerce environment. A fuzzy set and fuzzy truth-values are attached to an uncertain fuzzy token to model imprecision and uncertainty. The proposed FEHLPN incorporates essential aspects of rule-based systems, such as conservation of facts, refraction, and closed-world assumption.     

Integrated approach for disassembly processes generation and recycling evaluation of an end-of-life product

An integrated approach for noble recycling is presented that puts forward the functional value of products and components. In a first step, the approach determines all feasible automatic disassembly sequences and in a second step all applicable recycling activities. This allows one to determine the most appropriate recycling process for an end-of-life product considering concurrent recycling techniques. The feasible automatic disassembly sequences are established by simulation in a virtual environment. The required generic disassembly product model, as well as the generic disassembly activity model, is presented by means of static and dynamic object-oriented diagrams. The recycling evaluation establishes an efficient solution responding to economic and ecological decision criteria. It is calculated applying a Goal-Programming approach transforming the multi-objective linear problem into a monocriteria linear program. The techno-economic decision model applied is Linear Activity Analysis. It allows one to integrate the generated disassembly processes based on single disassembly activities as well as other recycling techniques.     

拆卸序列规划中子装配体的识别与生成

子装配体识别是解决大规模拆卸序列规划"组合爆炸"问题的有效方法之一.为了准确有效地识别与生成子装配体,在装配体零部件间接触关系、联接关系和向位妨碍关系及其相应图模型、矩阵的基础上,提出了一种基于图模型和判断矩阵的拆卸序列规划子装配体的识别算法.该算法利用图模型对子装配体集合做加法,利用判断矩阵对子装配体集合做减法,首先依据子装配体识别准则对图模型检索生成潜在子装配体集合,然后依据矩阵判断公式从集合中排除不符合连续性原则、稳定性原则和可行性原则的子装配体,并筛选理想个数的符合重量标准、同质标准和价值标准的最终子装配体集合.以减速器实例验证方法的可行性和有效性.     

Modelling of laminates using a layerwise element with enhanced strains

A layerwise finite element with enhanced strains is developed for the analysis of laminates with special emphasis on determination of interlaminar forces and study of delaminations. An interface model using the penalty function method is developed to calculate strain energy release rates. Since the interface model provides the facility for the closure of delamination by a small amount, strain energy release rates were evaluated by actual crack closure and by virtual crack closure methods for a comparative study. Numerical examples of delamination are presented to illustrate the accuracy of the computational approaches developed herein. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling imperfect maintenance and the reliability of complex systems using superposed renewal processes

In problems of maintenance optimization, it is convenient to assume that repairs are equivalent to replacements and that systems or objects are, therefore, brought back into an as good as new state after each repair. Standard results in renewal theory may then be applied for determining optimal maintenance policies. In practice, there are many situations in which this assumption cannot be made. The quintessential problem with imperfect maintenance is how to model it. In many cases it is very difficult to assess by how much a partial repair will improve the condition of a system or object and it is equally difficult to assess how such a repair influences the rate of deterioration. In this paper, a superposition of renewal process is used to model the effect of imperfect maintenance. It constitutes a different modelling approach than the more common use of a virtual age process.     

A Petri Net based approach to determine the disassembly strategy of a product

In order to protect the environment and regain value added to products, a process known as disassembly has come into the limelight. This process is to be applied to reuse abandoned goods and materials. Manufacturers are being forced to establish disassembly plants and to develop their products' designs so as to maintain the government's dictate to dispose off their products in an environmentally responsible manner. This research presents a cost-based heuristic analysis for a circuit board assembly. Various components of the product and their assembly relationships are represented by a Petri Net diagram. Firing the transitions of the disassembly Petri Net is integrated with cost-based indices to develop an effective disassembly strategy. The methodology discussed here simplifies the decisionmaking process involved in disassembly planning. A comprehensive disassembly process planning system is proposed here and is exemplified by a case study of circuit board assembly.     

Economic evaluation of disassembly processes in remanufacturing systems

A model to deal with the disassembly processes in remanufacturing systems is presented with focus being on evaluating their economic consequences. More specifically, the model assists decisions such as to which degree and for the sake of which components should the returned items be disassembled. Consequently, using the economic values of recoverable items, the inventory holding costs of these items are obtained. This information is further used to determine the inventory control policy. To access such economic values, the above average cost approach is compared with the net present value method. The latter is often considered a more?‘correct’?way in remanufacturing systems from the viewpoint of inventory control. The results from the economic evaluation model are intended to aid companies in systematically evaluating current as well as projected remanufacturing systems.     

Modelling convection in solidification processes using stabilized finite element techniques

Solidification of dendritic alloys is modelled using stabilized finite element techniques to study convection and macrosegregation driven by buoyancy and shrinkage. The adopted governing macroscopic conservation equations of momentum, energy and species transport are derived from their microscopic counterparts using the volume‐averaging method. A single domain model is considered with a fixed numerical grid and without boundary conditions applied explicitly on the freezing front. The mushy zone is modelled here as a porous medium with either an isotropic or an anisotropic permeability. The stabilized finite‐element scheme, previously developed by authors for modelling flows with phase change, is extended here to include effects of shrinkage, density changes and anisotropic permeability during solidification. The fluid flow scheme developed includes streamline‐upwind/Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG), pressure stabilizing/Petrov–Galerkin, Darcy stabilizing/Petrov–Galerkin and other stabilizing terms arising from changes in density in the mushy zone. For the energy and species equations a classical SUPG‐based finite element method is employed with minor modifications. The developed algorithms are first tested for a reference problem involving solidification of lead–tin alloy where the mushy zone is characterized by an isotropic permeability. Convergence studies are performed to validate the simulation results. Solidification of the same alloy in the absence of shrinkage is studied to observe differences in macrosegregation. Vertical solidification of a lead–tin alloy, where the mushy zone is characterized by an anisotropic permeability, is then simulated. The main aim here is to study convection and demonstrate formation of freckles and channels due to macrosegregation. The ability of stabilized finite element methods to model a wide variety of solidification problems with varying underlying phenomena in two and three dimensions is demonstrated through these examples. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于规则对象Petri网的柔性制造系统建模

针对FMS建模中存在的问题，通过分析FMS的组成和活动特点，提出了规则对象Petri网的建模方法。该方法集中了Petri网和面向对象技术的优点，并融系统决策规则子模型中。利用规则对象Petri网，建立了FMS的资源对象模型、动态行为模型和调度决策模型，为设计、分析和调度控制提供了有效的工具。     

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.     

医疗信息系统工作流的Petri网建模与化简分析

应用 Petri网建模与工作流技术,构建了基于医疗信息整合(IHE)规范的医疗信息系统工作流的Petri网模型,并对一个医疗信息系统工作流实例,给出了基于Petri网化简分析方法的模型化简与性质验证,表明该模型能够对医疗信息工作流进行有效的分析和验证,从而为医疗信息系统集成设计及其工作流分析提供了理论基础.     

Modelling and simulation of energy consumption of ceramic production chains with mixed flows using hybrid Petri nets

Ceramic production chain consisting of discrete flow and continuous flow energy-intensive processes consumes substantial amounts of energy. This study aims to evaluate energy consumption performance and energy-saving potentials of the ceramic production chain. According to the energy consumption characteristics of manufacturing processes and process interaction constraints in a ceramic production chain, an approach integrating the first-order hybrid Petri net (FOHPN) model, an objective linear programming model and a sensitivity analysis is proposed. The FOHPN model will simulate the energy consumption patterns of the ceramic production chain. Meanwhile, multi-objective linear programming model and sensitivity analysis will suggest the optimal specific energy consumption (SEC) of the production chain and identify the influences of input parameters (i.e. production rate of a process) on the SEC in the optimal production scheme. Finally, a real case study from bathroom ceramic plant validates the approach. It provides a tool for modelling and simulation of energy consumption of ceramic production chains with mixed flows and helps operators to perform energy-saving actions in the ceramic enterprise.