Title: A formal specification approach for holonic control systems: the ADACOR case

Authors: Paulo Leitao, Armando W. Colombo, Francisco Restivo

Addresses: Polytechnic Institute of Braganca, Quinta Sta Apolonia, Apartado 1134, Braganca 5301-857, Portugal. ' Schneider Electric – P&T HUB, Steinheimer Street 117, Seligenstadt 63500, Germany. ' Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto 4200-465, Portugal

Abstract: Distributed manufacturing control systems, such as Holonic Control Systems (HCSs), are difficult to apprehend and to design, due to the presence of many autonomous, concurrent and asynchronous activities. A formal specification methodology allowing to understand, to synthesise the system specifications and to validate the correctness of their models would play a key role in its design and later in its implementation. This paper presents an approach to the formal specification of HCSs based on high-level Petri nets. The proposed approach is tested in the specification of the ADACOR HCS.

Keywords: Petri nets; modelling; intelligent manufacturing control; flexible manufacturing systems; FMS; holonic manufacturing; holonic control systems; distributed manufacturing; distributed control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2006.008790

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2006 Vol.8 No.1/2/3, pp.37 - 57

Published online: 25 Jan 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article