FMS Scheduling under Availability Constraint with Supervisor Based on Timed Petri Nets

This paper proposes an optimal solution to large-scale Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) scheduling problems under availability constraints based on Timed Petri Nets (TPNs). First a decomposition method of TPNs is proposed, then a mathematical model is derived based on their properties. The mathematical model is built to determine the optimal firing sequence of TPN transitions to minimize the total manufacturing time. The resulting firing sequence of TPN transitions is used to generate the manufacturing system supervisor operated by TPN and digital controllers. Several numerical examples and comparative studies are provided in this paper in order to prove the new approach’s efficiency.