SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN OF LOGIC CONTROLLERS FOR AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

The complexity of manufacturing systems makes it necessary to use adeq uate modelling tools based on a hierarchical and modular approach whic h highlights the dependency relationship between different system comp onents. This paper presents a methodology which utilizes the hierarchi cal decomposition of structured analysis and design technique and the modularity of Petri nets to obtain the Grafcet, representing the imple mentation of the logic controller of an automated manufacturing system . This methodology aims at: (i) improving the communication between th e manufacturing system designer and the control designer, (ii) generat ing the control logic starting from high-level specifications, and (ii i) providing the basis for the validation of the control system. Copyr ight (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.