Automated construction of GSPN models for flexible manufacturing systems

Generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs) are often used to specify flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) and their control systems. While GSPNs are a powerful tool for system modeling, their complexity can become unmanageable for all but the simplest 'toy' systems. Thus, manual construction of GSPNs can quickly become unacceptably slow and error-prone. In this paper, a formal method is developed to automatically construct a GSPN model for a given FMS. An FMS description language (FMSDL) is presented as the language for the input file of a GSPN construction program named FMSPet. FMSPet translates FMSDL input files into a GSPN system model, maps the specified process plans onto the given physical system, and attaches control stubs to resolve conflicts. The output GSPN is formatted as an input file for the stochastic Petri net package (SPNP) to support the analysis and evaluation of the structural and temporal properties of the net. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.