A Method to Compute Strict Minimal Siphons in a Class of Petri Nets Based on Loop Resource Subsets

Strict minimal siphons (SMS) play an important role in the development of deadlock control policies for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). For a class of Petri nets called Systems of Simple Sequential Processes with Resources (S³PR), the resource circuit-based method is an effective way to compute SMS. In this paper, a more effective one to compute SMS is proposed. First, the concepts of loop resource subsets and their characteristic resource subnets are proposed. Next, sufficient and necessary conditions for loop resource subsets to generate SMS are established. Finally, an algorithm is given to find all the SMS based on loop resource subsets. Since the number of loop resource subsets is much less than that of resource circuits and their combinations, the computational efficiency of the SMS enumeration task is significantly improved by the proposed method. An FMS example is used to illustrate the application of the proposed method, and computational time comparisons are provided on several S³PRs to show its superior efficiency.