Analysis of Manufacturing Systems Based on Augmented Marked Graphs

Augmented marked graphs have a number of known properties pertaining to their liveness and reversibility and are often used in modelling flexible manufacturing systems. This paper begins with a brief description of augmented marked graphs and their known properties. These include both the siphon-based characterisations and the cycle-inclusion-based characterisations for live and reversible augmented marked graphs. The former provides the necessary and sufficient conditions for the liveness and reversibility. The latter provides the sufficient conditions, but the conditions are relatively simple because cycles instead of siphons are to be considered. Then, we show the modelling of a manufacturing system using an augmented marked graph. Based on the known properties of augmented marked graphs, the system liveness and reversibility can be effectively analysed. Examples drawn from the literature are used for illustration