Unbounded Petri Nets Research Articles

Diagnosability of Petri nets with observation graphs

This paper addresses the problem of diagnosability for dynamic discrete event systems modeled with bounded or unbounded Petri nets that are deadlock-free and monitored with sensor configurations with marking and event measurements. The proposed method gives necessary and sufficient conditions for diagnosability. It is based on the transformation of the coverability graph into an observation graph that encodes all observation sequences of measured markings and events with respect to the sensor configuration. This graph also encodes all sequences of transitions that may fire from any reachable marking of the Petri net. Diagnosability is determined by analyzing the paths and circuits in the observation graph. The method is illustrated with several examples of bounded or unbounded Petri nets.

Petri nets properties related to the unboundness and analyzed using coverability multigraph

Abstract Petri nets represent a powerful tool for modeling the discrete event systems. The Petri net markings correspond to the system states. The infinity of the marking set means that the Petri net is unbounded and this may be the sign of an incorrect system model. In that case instead of the reachability set and the reachability graph the coverability set and the coverability multigraph can be used to represent the Petri net state space. A systematic way of building the notion of the coverability set and coverability multigraph based on the notion of the ω -marking is given in the paper. Algorithm for its construction is introduced. Then the use of the coverability multigraph for the analysis of several properties of the unbounded Petri nets is described.

Priced Timed Petri Nets

We consider priced timed Petri nets, i.e., unbounded Petri nets where each token carries a real-valued clock. Transition arcs are labeled with time intervals, which specify constraints on the ages of tokens. Furthermore, our cost model assigns token storage costs per time unit to places, and firing costs to transitions. This general model strictly subsumes both priced timed automata and unbounded priced Petri nets. We study the cost of computations that reach a given control-state. In general, a computation with minimal cost may not exist, due to strict inequalities in the time constraints. However, we show that the infimum of the costs to reach a given control-state is computable in the case where all place and transition costs are non-negative. On the other hand, if negative costs are allowed, then the question whether a given control-state is reachable with zero overall cost becomes undecidable. In fact, this negative result holds even in the simpler case of discrete time (i.e., integer-valued clocks).

A New Modified Reachability Tree Approach and Its Applications to Unbounded Petri Nets

This paper proposes a new modified reachability tree (NMRT) approach for a class of unbounded generalized Petri nets called ω-independent nets. The NMRT of an ω-independent net consists of all and only reachable markings from its initial marking. Moreover, the applications of the NMRT to deadlock analysis for ω-independent nets are developed. The proposed method has a larger application scope than all the existing methods. Several examples are provided to show its superiority over them.

Optimal sensor selection for ensuring diagnosability in labeled Petri nets

This paper studies the problem of optimal static sensor selection for ensuring diagnosability in labeled bounded and unbounded Petri nets. Starting from a non-diagnosable labeled Petri net system, we present a systematic procedure to design a new labeling function that makes the system diagnosable and optimizes a given objective function. This procedure employs a particular net, called Verifier Net, that is built from the original Petri net and provides necessary and sufficient conditions for diagnosability. We exploit the system structure captured in the verifier net to guide the search for the desired new labeling function. The search is performed over an unfolding of the reachability/coverability tree of the verifier net and follows a set of rules that capture the relabeling strategy. We allow for unobservable transitions that cannot be labeled as well as for multiple fault classes. We formulate an integer linear programming problem that finds an optimal labeling function when numerical costs are associated with transition relabeling.

Petri Nets with Time and Cost

We consider timed Petri nets, i.e., unbounded Petri nets where each token carries a real-valued clock. Transition arcs are labeled with time intervals, which specify constraints on the ages of tokens. Our cost model assigns token storage costs per time unit to places, and firing costs to transitions. We study the cost to reach a given control-state. In general, a cost-optimal run may not exist. However,we show that the infimum of the costs is computable.

A New Approach for Diagnosability Analysis of Petri Nets Using Verifier Nets

In this paper, we analyze the diagnosability properties of labeled Petri nets. We consider the standard notion of diagnosability of languages, requiring that every occurrence of an unobservable fault event be eventually detected, as well as the stronger notion of diagnosability in <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> steps, where the detection must occur within a fixed bound of <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> event occurrences after the fault. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for these two notions of diagnosability for both bounded and unbounded Petri nets and then present an algorithmic technique for testing the conditions based on linear programming. Our approach is novel and based on the analysis of the reachability/coverability graph of a special Petri net, called Verifier Net, that is built from the Petri net model of the given system. In the case of systems that are diagnosable in <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> steps, we give a procedure to compute the bound <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> . To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that necessary and sufficient conditions for diagnosability and diagnosability in <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K</i> steps of labeled unbounded Petri nets are presented.

On the Decidability of Non Interference over Unbounded Petri Nets

Non-interference, in transitive or intransitive form, is defined here over unbounded (Place/Transition) Petri nets. The definitions are adaptations of similar, well-accepted definitions introduced earlier in the framework of labelled transition systems. The interpretation of intransitive non-interference which we propose for Petri nets is as follows. A Petri net represents the composition of a controlled and a controller systems, possibly sharing places and transitions. Low transitions represent local actions of the controlled system, high transitions represent local decisions of the controller, and downgrading transitions represent synchronized actions of both components. Intransitive non-interference means the impossibility for the controlled system to follow any local strategy that would force or dodge synchronized actions depending upon the decisions taken by the controller after the last synchronized action. The fact that both language equivalence and bisimulation equivalence are undecidable for unbounded labelled Petri nets might be seen as an indication that non-interference properties based on these equivalences cannot be decided. We prove the opposite, providing results of decidability of non-interference over a representative class of infinite state systems.

Discrete event diagnosis using labeled Petri nets. An application to manufacturing systems

In this paper an approach to on-line diagnosis of discrete event systems based on labeled Petri nets is presented. The approach is based on the notion of basis markings and justifications and it can be applied both to bounded and unbounded Petri nets whose unobservable subnet is acyclic. Moreover it is shown that, in the case of bounded Petri nets, the most burdensome part of the procedure may be moved off-line, computing a particular graph called Basis Reachability Graph.Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed procedure is analyzed applying a MATLAB diagnosis toolbox we developed to a manufacturing example taken from the literature.

Deadlock Checking for One-Place Unbounded Petri Nets Based on Modified Reachability Trees

A deadlock-checking approach for one-place unbounded Petri nets is presented based on modified reachability trees (MRTs). An MRT can provide some useful information that is lost in a finite reachability tree, owing to MRT's use of the expression a + bn(i) rather than symbol omega to represent the value of the components of a marking. The information is helpful to property analysis of unbounded Petri nets. For the deadlock-checking purpose, this correspondence paper classifies full conditional nodes in MRT into two types: true and fake ones. Then, an algorithm is proposed to determine whether a full conditional node is true or not. Finally, a necessary and sufficient condition of deadlocks is presented. Examples are given to illustrate the method.

On-Line Monitoring of Large Petri Net Models Under Partial Observation

We consider a Petri Net model of the plant. The observation is given by a subset of transitions whose occurrence is always and immediately sensed by a monitoring agent. Other transitions not in this subset are silent (unobservable). Classical on-line monitoring techniques, which are based on the estimation of the current state of the plant and the detection of the occurrence of undesirable events (faults), are not suitable for models of large systems due to high spatial complexity (exponential in the size of the entire model). In this paper we propose a method based on the explanation of plant observation. A legal trace minimally explains the observation if it includes all unobservable transitions whose firing is needed to enable the observed transitions. To do so, starting from an observable transition, using backward search techniques, a set of minimal explanations is derived, which are sufficient for detecting whether a fault event must have occurred for sure in the plant or not. The technique also allows production of a set of basis markings for the estimation of the current state of the plant. The set of all possible current markings can then be characterized as the unobservable reach of these basis markings. The computational complexity of the algorithm depends on the size of the largest connected subnet which includes only unobservable transitions. This allows monitoring of plants of any size in which there is no large unobservable subnet. We also illustrate the applicability of the method for the monitoring of a class of infinite state systems, unbounded Petri Nets with unobservable trap circuits, and we show how this can be useful for distributed implementations.

Comments on "A Modified Reachability Tree Approach to Analysis of Unbounded Petri Nets

The above paper introduced the construction of a modified reachability tree (MRT) for (unbounded) Petri nets and its application to reachability, liveness, and deadlock analysis. This note shows via a counterexample that some of the MRT properties claimed in the above paper are incorrect.

A modified reachability tree approach to analysis of unbounded Petri nets.

Reachability trees, especially the corresponding Karp-Miller's finite reachability trees generated for Petri nets are fundamental for systematically investigating many characteristics such as boundedness, liveness, and performance of systems modeled by Petri nets. However, too much information is lost in a FRT to render it useful for many applications. In this paper, modified reachability trees (MRT) of Petri nets are introduced that extend the capability of Karp-Miller's FRTs in solving the liveness, deadlock, and reachability problems, and in defining or determining possible firing sequences. The finiteness of MRT is proved and several examples are presented to illustrate the advantages of MRT over FRT.

SAT-Solving the Coverability Problem for Petri Nets

Net unfoldings have attracted great attention as a powerful technique for combating state space explosion in model checking, and have been applied to verification of finite state systems including 1-safe (finite) Petri nets and synchronous products of finite transition systems. Given that net unfoldings represent the state space in a distributed, implicit manner the verification algorithm is necessarily a two step process: generation of the unfolding and reasoning about it. In his seminal work McMillan (K.L. McMillan, Symbolic Model Checking. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993) showed that deadlock detection on unfoldings of 1-safe Petri nets is NP-complete. Since the deadlock problem on Petri nets is PSPACE-hard it is generally accepted that the two step process will yield savings (in time and space) provided the unfoldings are small. In this paper we show how unfoldings can be extended to the context of infinite-state systems. More precisely, we show how unfoldings can be constructed to represent sets of backward reachable states of unbounded Petri nets in a symbolic fashion. Furthermore, based on unfoldings, we show how to solve the coverability problem for unbounded Petri nets using a SAT-solver. Our experiments show that the use of unfoldings, in spite of the two-step process for solving coverability, has better time and space characteristics compared to a traditional reachability based implementation that considers all interleavings for solving the coverability problem.

Model-Checking with Coverability Graphs

We show that several formulas of a temporal logic can be verified using the coverability graph of the underlying system. Of course, the procedure is not capable of verifying all formulae, since already the reachability problem for (unbounded) Petri nets is computationally hard. Thus, the procedure returns true, false, or unknown for a query. The formulae that can be verified cover most of the well known standard properties which have been listed in the context of coverability graph analysis so far.

Normal and sinkless petri nets

We examine both the modeling power of normal and sinkless Petri nets and the computational complexities of various classical decision problems with respect to these two classes. We argue that although neither normal nor sinkless Petri nets are strictly more powerful than persistent Petri nets, they nonetheless are both capable of modeling a more interesting class of problems. On the other hand, we give strong evidence that normal and sinkless Petri nets are easier to analyze than persistent Petri nets. In so doing, we apply techniques originally developed for conflict-free Petri nets—a class defined solely in terms of the structure of the net—to sinkless Petri nets—a class defined in terms of the behavior of the net. As a result, we give the first comprehensive complexity analysis of a class of potentially unbounded Petri nets defined in terms of their behavior.