An admissible-behaviour-based analysis of the deadlock in Petri-net controllers

This paper addresses the problem of verifying the discrete control logic that is typically implemented by programmable controllers. Not only are the logical properties of the controller studied during verification, the behaviour of the overall controlled system is also examined. An approach that combines the calculation of the safety-oriented interlock controllers in terms of supervisory control theory (SCT), the corresponding calculation of the admissible behaviour of the system, and the specification of the desired system operation by Petri nets is proposed. A potential deadlock in the controlled system is then verified by taking the admissible-behaviour model as a process model. The analysis of the simultaneously operated supervisory-control-based interlock controller and the Petri-net-based sequential controller is performed with a C-reachability graph. The paper focuses on the calculation of the graph, and the approach is illustrated with an example of a simple manufacturing cell. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.