Implementation of a Petri net controller for a machining workstation

Abstract

An application-independent manufacturing workstation controller is described for a general purpose computer which uses Petri nets to describe the sequencing informaiton. Several additions are made to Petri nets to allow the modeling of hierarchical systems, conflict decisions, and system actions. An application is composed of a description of the Petri net model of the system using a declarative language, and action-causing procedures written in the 'C' programming language. The Petri net determines when an action is to be done. An application is documented for a machining workstation centered around a Cincinnati Milacron SVC Machining Center.