A Petri net-object oriented architecture for plant simulation

We present a CASE tool based on high level Petri nets (PNs) for the design of real-time simulators of plants, it is derived from XpetreX whose peculiar characteristics have been improved towards a more effective object oriented approach. The CASE tool basically consists of two main software modules: a development system and a run-time system. The former supports the user in the design process of the simulator. The latter is the real-time platform able to run the model generated by the development system. The object oriented approach allows the user to design reusable modules for the automatic generation of PNs by subnet class derivation and instantiation. A main goal is to use PNs for industrial plants simulation even to those users that have no or little knowledge on PNs. A library of classes can be written in the same way as a library of object in an object oriented programming language. The ability of the run-time module to communicate with other processes is being implemented and allows the interaction with other applications