Online Activation and Deactivation of a Petri Net Supervisor

This paper highlights algebraic and mathematical properties in symmetry with Petri nets in order to control automated systems such as flexible workshops, which represent one of the most important examples in industry and for discrete event systems in general. This project deals with the problem of forbidden state transition by using a new application of the theory of regions for supervisory control. In the literature, most control synthesis methods suffer greatly from a cumbersome calculation burden of the Petri net supervisor given the complex exploration of the state graph. Our new methodology lightens the computational load of the Petri net supervisor by choosing specific regions on the reachability graph, on which the control is calculated offline using CPLEX. The determined controller is activated online if the process enters the chosen region, and deactivated otherwise. All our experiments were applied in a flexible workshop implemented in our research laboratory, which was used to engrave selected models on glass blocks of different colors.