Customizable service-oriented Petri net controllers

In industrial automation, service-orientation is a relatively new and ascending concept and thus, concrete integrated methodologies are missing to accomplish the required development tasks. A suitable approach is to use the powerful set of features that Petri nets formalism provides for such dynamic systems. This paper presents a token game template that is part of the open methodology for the development of customized Petri nets controllers, targeting the engineering of service-oriented industrial automation. This template is based on a state machine specification for the life-cycle of transitions that leaves several options open for extending it with features depending on the application. The practical use and implementation should bring, among others, featured-full and integrated modeling, analysis and control capabilities, which is required by service-oriented ecosystems. This core structure was used and validated in the development of control applications for an industrial automation system.The authors would like to thank the European Commission and the partners of the EU IST FP6 project “Service-Oriented Cross-layer infrastructure for Distributed smart Embedded devices” (SOCRADES), the EU FP6 “Network of Excellence for Innovative Production Machines and Systems” (I*PROMS), and the European ICT FP7 project “Cooperating Objects Network of Excellence” (CONET) for their support