On the Design of Regulation Controllers for Automation Systems with <i>RCPetri</i>

Abstract

Regulation control for Petri nets is a control framework that allows the design of sequence controllers for automation systems in a systematic and efficient way. In order to implement this control framework, the MATLAB® app RCPetri has been developed. In this work, the RCPetri tool functionalities are described, including model generation, automatic specification generation, automatic control design, model and control simulation, automatic translation to PLC code, and communication by Modbus TCP/IP and OPC UA. Furthermore, three examples are presented to illustrate the application of the tool and the regulation framework: an electro-pneumatic device, a process control system, and a robotic manufacturing cell under a decentralized control scheme.

Keywords

• automation
• industrial informatics
• discrete event systems
• Petri nets
• regulation control