Petri net approaches to deadlock modeling and resolution in automated manufacturing

As more and more producers move to use flexible and agile manufacturing as a way to keep them in a competitive edge, the investigations on deadlock resolution in automated manufacturing have received much attention for a decade. Deadlock and related blocking phenomena often lead to catastrophic results in automated manufacturing systems (AMS). Their efficient handling becomes a necessary condition for a system to gain high productivity. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of deadlock control methods for AMS in a framework of Petri nets (PN). It recalls the updated results in the areas of deadlock prevention, detection and recovery, and avoidance.