An extension to timed colored Petri nets (TCPNs) for modeling manufacturing systems with limited resources availability

This paper presents an extension to timed colored Petri nets (TCPN) for modeling manufacturing systems subject to the limited availability of some resources. The limited availability of a resource refers to the situation that a resource can only be used within one or more time intervals, which cannot be modeled by the existing TCPN approach. The extension is made by defining the limited usable time stamp, and modifying rules for enabling and firing transitions that have input or output places representing the limited availability of resources. The extended TCPN can be applied in real time control and scheduling of manufacturing systems subject to the limited availability of some resources