Modularised, distributed real-time control of flexible production cells, using Petri nets

The main goal of this work is the design of a real-time scheduler for controlling flexible production cells using an extension of Petri nets. The approach comprises a modularisation of a Petri-net, which models the different resources of the cell under study. This leads to the design of a distributed discrete-event control system, which is built up of three main structures, the coordination system, and the local and complex controllers for solving conflicts. The dynamics of the proposed control system is operated by means of an application protocol, which allows for coordination and synchronisation between both controllers, The validation of this approach is shown on an example application.