Control of batch processes based on hierarchical Petri nets

A batch process is a typical concurrent system in which multiple interacting tasks are carried out in parallel on several batches at the same time. A major difficulty in designing a batch control system is the lack of modeling techniques. This paper aims at developing a method of constructing batch control system models in a hierarchical manner and operating batch processes using the constructed models. For this purpose, it first defines process and plant specifications described by partial languages, next presents a procedure for constructing hierarchical Petri net based models, and states the verification of models based on reachability analysis. It also discusses the detection of faults and conflicts in batch processes based on place-invariant analysis.