A modeling strategy for control and interlocking of an AMS using Virtual Petri Nets

An automated manufacturing system (AMS) is a production system where a discrete number of parts is processed and assembled by controlled machines and/or robots. Controlling an AMS is a complex task due to the several sub-systems that compose it and the need for market issues. The AMS control complexity increases with the necessity of production and technologic resources. The proposal of this work is build a modeling strategy for control and interlocking of an AMS using virtual Petri nets (VPN), allowing link to strategic levels of the systems and attending production strategies. This method proposes eight elaboration stages of the model. The work ends with the application of the method to a flexible manufacturing system.