A modular modeling approach for automated manufacturing systems based on shared resources and process planning using Petri nets

The modeling of automated manufacturing systems has been studied to cope with production planning and control problems. Petri nets have been applied to model these systems because they provide resources to represent the system behavior. When the systems are too large or complex, the modeling task is difficult and the elements in the model are too many for a simple understanding and analysis. This paper proposes an approach to modeling these systems to minimize these difficulties. The proposed approach uses Petri nets and a modular strategy considering shared resources and alternative process planning. Using this approach, a system has been modeled. First the system elements for the modeling job were considered, and then the modules were linked to build the complete model