Complexity metrics for Petri net based logic control algorithms

In the area of automatic control, more and more tasks formerly solved using special hardware are being solved using software. Hence, when discussing quality in automation, it is necessary to measure the quality of a software product. Software quality is a field of major interest for researchers and practitioners. However, in the area of control engineering, it is rarely studied. In previous publications the authors introduced the concept of transparency and defined corresponding metrics to measure the quality of logic controllers. In addition to these metrics, known complexity metrics from computer science are adapted to the area of logic control design and it is shown how the concepts of complexity and transparency are related. The metrics are introduced using the signal interpreted Petri net, but they are also valid for other Petri net types