Petri nets were conceived in 1962 as a model of parallel systems, and have been applied to a wide range of problems. This volume presents both the basic model and demonstrates how it can be applied to a large number of different systems. It also presents basic analysis techniques and shows how Petri nets compare to other models of parallel systems.This second, digital, edition of the original 1981 publication is a faithful reproduction of that work, with dozens of corrections and minor improvements. The original 1981 book was scanned, OCRed, processed and corrected to create an all new printing.

The emerging, multi-disciplinary field of systems biology is devoted to the study of the relationships between various parts of a biological system, and computer modeling plays a vital role in the drive to understand the processes of life from an holistic viewpoint. Advancements in experimental technologies in biology and medicine have generated an enormous amount of biological data on the dependencies and interactions of many different molecular cell processes, fueling the development of numerous computational methods for exploring this data. The mathematical formalism of Petri net theory is able to encompass many of these techniques. This essential text/reference presents a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge research in applications of Petri nets in systems biology, with contributions from an international selection of experts. Those unfamiliar with the field are also provided with a general introduction to systems biology, the foundations of biochemistry, and the basics of Petri net theory. Further chapters address Petri net modeling techniques for building and analyzing biological models, as well as network prediction approaches, before reviewing the applications to networks of different biological classification. Topics and features: investigates the modular, qualitative modeling of regulatory networks using Petri nets, and examines an Hybrid Functional Petri net simulation case study; contains a glossary of the concepts and notation used in the book, in addition to exercises at the end of each chapter; covers the topological analysis of metabolic and regulatory networks, the analysis of models of signaling networks, and the prediction of network structure; provides a biological case study on the conversion of logical networks into Petri nets; discusses discrete modeling, stochastic modeling, fuzzy modeling, dynamic pathway modeling, genetic regulatory network modeling, and quantitative analysis techniques; includes a Foreword by Professor Jens Reich, Professor of Bioinformatics at Humboldt University and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. This unique guide to the modeling of biochemical systems using Petri net concepts will be of real utility to researchers and students of computational biology, systems biology, bioinformatics, computer science, and biochemistry.

An introduction to the modeling of business information systems, with processes formally modeled using Petri nets. This comprehensive introduction to modeling business-information systems focuses on business processes. It describes and demonstrates the formal modeling of processes in terms of Petri nets, using a well-established theory for capturing and analyzing models with concurrency. The precise semantics of this formal method offers a distinct advantage for modeling processes over the industrial modeling languages found in other books on the subject. Moreover, the simplicity and expressiveness of the Petri nets concept make it an ideal language for explaining foundational concepts and constructing exercises. After an overview of business information systems, the book introduces the modeling of processes in terms of classical Petri nets. This is then extended with data, time, and hierarchy to model all aspects of a process. Finally, the book explores analysis of Petri net models to detect design flaws and errors in the design process. The text, accessible to a broad audience of professionals and students, keeps technicalities to a minimum and offers numerous examples to illustrate the concepts covered. Exercises at different levels of difficulty make the book ideal for independent study or classroom use.

Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) is a graphical language for modelling and validating concurrent and distributed systems, and other systems in which concurrency plays a major role. The development of such systems is particularly challenging because of inherent intricacies like possible nondeterminism and the immense number of possible execution sequences. In this textbook Jensen and Kristensen introduce the constructs of the CPN modelling language and present the related analysis methods in detail. They also provide a comprehensive road map for the practical use of CPN by showcasing selected industrial case studies that illustrate the practical use of CPN modelling and validation for design, specification, simulation, verification and implementation in various application domains. Their presentation primarily aims at readers interested in the practical use of CPN. Thus all concepts and constructs are first informally introduced through examples and then followed by formal definitions (which may be skipped). The book is ideally suitable for a one-semester course at an advanced undergraduate or graduate level, and through its strong application examples can also serve for self-study. An accompanying website offers additional material such as slides, exercises and project proposals. Book website: http://www.cs.au.dk/CPnets/cpnbook/

Control of Discrete-event Systems provides a survey of the most important topics in the discrete-event systems theory with particular focus on finite-state automata, Petri nets and max-plus algebra. Coverage ranges from introductory material on the basic notions and definitions of discrete-event systems to more recent results. Special attention is given to results on supervisory control, state estimation and fault diagnosis of both centralized and distributed/decentralized systems developed in the framework of the Distributed Supervisory Control of Large Plants (DISC) project. Later parts of the text are devoted to the study of congested systems though fluidization, an over approximation allowing a much more efficient study of observation and control problems of timed Petri nets. Finally, the max-plus algebraic approach to the analysis and control of choice-free systems is also considered. Control of Discrete-event Systems provides an introduction to discrete-event systems for readers that are not familiar with this class of systems, but also provides an introduction to research problems and open issues of current interest to readers already familiar with them. Most of the material in this book has been presented during a Ph.D. school held in Cagliari, Italy, in June 2011.

Design of modern digital hardware systems and of complex software systems is almost always connected with parallelism. For example, execution of an object-oriented p- gram can be considered as parallel functioning of the co-operating objects; all modern operating systems are multitasking, and the software tends to be multithread; many complex calculation tasks are solved in distributed way. But designers of the control systems probably have to face parallelism in more evident and direct way. Controllers rarely deal with just one controlled object. Usually a system of several objects is to be controlled, and then the control algorithm naturally turns to be parallel. So, classical and very deeply investigated model of discrete device, Finite State Machine, is not expressive enough for the design of control devices and systems. Theoretically in most of cases behavior of a controller can be described by an FSM, but usually it is not convenient; such FSM description would be much more complex, than a parallel specification (even as a network of several communicating FSMs).

Driven by the request for increased productivity, flexibility, and competitiveness, modern civilization increasingly has created high-performance discrete event dynamic systems (DEDSs). These systems exhibit concurrent, sequential, competitive activities among their components. They are often complex and large in scale, and necessarily flexible and thus highly capital-intensive. Examples of systems are manufacturing systems, communication networks, traffic and logistic systems, and military command and control systems. Modeling and performance evaluation play a vital role in the design and operation of such high-performance DEDSs and thus have received widespread attention from researchers over the past two decades. One methodology resulting from this effort is based on timed Petri nets and related graphical and mathematical tools. The popularity that Petri nets have been gaining in modeling of DEDSs is due to their powerful representational ability of concurrency and synchronization; however these properties of DEDSs cannot be expressed easily in traditional formalisms developed for analysis of `classical' systems with sequential behaviors. This book introduces the theories and applications of timed Petri nets systematically. Moreover, it also presents many practical applications in addition to theoretical developments, together with the latest research results and industrial applications of timed Petri nets. Timed Petri Nets: Theory and Application is intended for use by researchers and practitioners in the area of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems.

World renowned leaders in the field provide an accessible introduction to the use of Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPNs) for the performance analysis of diverse distributed systems. Divided into two parts, it begins with a summary of the major results in GSPN theory. The second section is devoted entirely to application examples which demonstrate how GSPN methodology can be used in different arenas. A simple version of the software tool used to analyse GSPN models is included with the book and a concise manual for its use is presented in the later chapters.

Air traffic controllers need advanced information and automated systems to provide a safe environment for everyone traveling by plane. One of the primary challenges in developing training for automated systems is to determine how much a trainee will need to know about the underlying technologies to use automation safely and efficiently. To ensure safety and success, task analysis techniques should be used as the basis of the design for training in automated systems in the aviation and aerospace industries. Automated Systems in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the application of underlying technologies used to enforce automation safety and efficiency. While highlighting topics such as expert systems, text mining, and human-machine interface, this publication explores the concept of constructing navigation algorithms, based on the use of video information and the methods of the estimation of the availability and accuracy parameters of satellite navigation. This book is ideal for aviation professionals, researchers, and managers seeking current research on information technology used to reduce the risk involved in aviation.