An Automatic Petri-Net Generator for Modeling a Flexible Manufacturing System

Petri-Net is widely used in the field of modeling a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) because of its intrinsic features such as concurrency, uynchronization, conflict, and eventtriggering. But designing a Petri-Net Model for an FMS is extremely tedious and difficult for debugging. Therefore, an automatic Petri-Net generator which can generate a bug-free model for an FMS is rather useful and practical. In this paper, a systematic method to construct a Timed Place PetriNet model for modeling an FMS is proposed, and is implemented as an Automatic Petri-Net Generator, with a Graphic User Interface, through which a user can input the system information of a practical FNS, such as the number of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), the number of machines, and their geometric relationship, a8 well as process flows of parts to be processed. Then, this generator will use these pieces of data to generate the corresponding Petri-Net Model.