Modeling, scheduling and control of flexible manufacturing systems by extended high-level evaluation Petri nets

This paper proposes an extended high level evaluation Petri net (EHLEP-N) for modeling and control of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). This new class of models is simple, perceivable and descriptive, having the capability of inference and making decisions. When applied to FMSs, the EHLEP-N can model real-time decisions with which dynamic scheduling rules can be investigated and evaluated. Experimental results show that the throughput for such systems with the new scheduling strategies can increase on an average of 7% by decreasing no-inputs and blockings compared with that of the traditional strategies.