Petri net synthesis and analysis of a flexible manufacturing system cell

The modeling and analysis of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) cell using Petri nets is presented. In order to illustrate how a Petri net with desirable properties can be constructed, the detailed synthesis process for this cell is described. During the process, top-down refinement, system decomposition, and modular composition ideas are used to achieve the hierarchy and preservation of important system properties. These properties include liveness, boundedness/safeness, and reversibility that guarantee the system to operate in a stable, deadlock-free, and cyclic manner. Furthermore, the analysis of a timed Petri net for cycle time is presented. The timed Petri net is first converted into an equivalent timed marked graph by a reduction technique. Then the standard procedure to find the cycle time for marked graphs is applied