Abstract Interleaving Semantics for Reconfigurable Petri Nets

Reconfigurable Petri nets are Petri nets together with rules for the dynamic change of the nets. We employ them for the formal modeling in the context of the Living Place Hamburg, a smart home that is an urban apartment serving as  a laboratory for investigating different areas of ambient intelligence. The interaction of the resident and the smart home is modeled using informal descriptions of scenarios. These scenarios provide the resident's procedures together with the smart home's support. A case study using reconfigurable Petri nets for modeling these scenarios has required extensions of the theory and has clearly shown the need for an interleaving semantics for reconfigurable Petri nets. Scenarios are then given by nets, namely decorated place/transition nets that can be adapted to the evolving subgoals by applying rules that change the nets and hence the behavior of the smart home. Decorated place/transition nets are annotated place/transition nets with additional transition labels that may change when the transition is fired. To obtain such reconfigurable Petri nets  we prove that decorated place/transition nets  give rise to an M-adhesive HLR category. The abstract interleaving semantics we introduce is a graph with nodes that consist of an isomorphism class of the net structure and an isomorphism class of the current  marking. Arcs between these nodes represent computation steps being either a transition firing or a direct transformation

1-Safe Petri nets and special cube complexes: equivalence and applications

Nielsen, Plotkin, and Winskel (1981) proved that every 1-safe Petri net $N$ unfolds into an event structure $\mathcal{E}_N$. By a result of Thiagarajan (1996 and 2002), these unfoldings are exactly the trace regular event structures. Thiagarajan (1996 and 2002) conjectured that regular event structures correspond exactly to trace regular event structures. In a recent paper (Chalopin and Chepoi, 2017, 2018), we disproved this conjecture, based on the striking bijection between domains of event structures, median graphs, and CAT(0) cube complexes. On the other hand, in Chalopin and Chepoi (2018) we proved that Thiagarajan's conjecture is true for regular event structures whose domains are principal filters of universal covers of (virtually) finite special cube complexes. In the current paper, we prove the converse: to any finite 1-safe Petri net $N$ one can associate a finite special cube complex ${X}_N$ such that the domain of the event structure $\mathcal{E}_N$ (obtained as the unfolding of $N$) is a principal filter of the universal cover $\widetilde{X}_N$ of $X_N$. This establishes a bijection between 1-safe Petri nets and finite special cube complexes and provides a combinatorial characterization of trace regular event structures. Using this bijection and techniques from graph theory and geometry (MSO theory of graphs, bounded treewidth, and bounded hyperbolicity) we disprove yet another conjecture by Thiagarajan (from the paper with S. Yang from 2014) that the monadic second order logic of a 1-safe Petri net is decidable if and only if its unfolding is grid-free. Our counterexample is the trace regular event structure $\mathcal{\dot E}_Z$ which arises from a virtually special square complex $\dot Z$. The domain of $\mathcal{\dot E}_Z$ is grid-free (because it is hyperbolic), but the MSO theory of the event structure $\mathcal{\dot E}_Z$ is undecidable

Petri Nets for Concurrent Programming

Concurrent programming is used in all large and complex computer systems. However, concurrency errors and system failures (ex: crashes and deadlocks) are common. We find that Petri nets can be used to model concurrent systems and find and remove errors ahead of time. We introduce a novel generalization of Petri nets with nondeterministic transition nodes to match real systems. These allow for a compact way to construct, optimize, and prove computer programs at the concurrency level. Petri net programs can also be optimized by automatically solving for maximal concurrency, where the maximum number of valid threads is determined by the structure of the Petri net prior to execution. We discuss an algorithm to compute the state graph of a given Petri net start state pair. We introduce our open source software framework which implements this theory as a general purpose concurrency focused middle-ware

Algebraic High-Level Nets and Processes Applied to Communication Platforms

Petri nets are well-known to model communication structures and algebraic specifications for modeling data types. Algebraic High-Level (AHL) nets are defined as integration of Petri nets with algebraic data types, which allows to model the communication structure and the data flow within one modelling framework. Transformations of AHL-nets – inspired by the theory of graph transformations – allow in addition to modify the communication structure. Moreover, highlevel processes of AHL-nets capture the concurrent semantics of AHL-nets in an adequate way. Altogether we obtain a powerful integrated formal specification technique to model and analyse all kinds of communication based systems. In this paper we give a comprehensive introduction of this framework. This includes main results concerning parallel independence of AHL-transformations and the transformation and amalgamation of AHL-occurrence nets and processes. Moreover, we show how this can be applied to model and analyse modern communication and collaboration platforms like Google Wave and Wikis. Especially we show how the Local Church-Rosser theorem for AHL-net tranformations can be applied to ensure the consistent integration of different platform evolutions. Moreover, the amalgamation theorem for AHL-processes shows under which conditions we can amalgamate waves of different Google Wave platforms in a compositional way

HIGH LEVEL PETRI NETS WITH DATA STRUCTURE

International audienceFor the lack of a data structure, Petri nets are not suitable for modeling systems such as Information Systems, where data have an effect on the system's behavior. In the High Level Petri Nets we set out here, tokens are replaced by entities which are described by means of a model closely related to those of the Database Theory. In order to take into account the values of entities, a precondition and an action may be associated to each transition. This data structure allows to define new nets' properties, which are analyzed by Program Theory techniques, whereas a lot of results provided by linear algebra remain valid. In addition, computation of invariants may be done

Negative Application Conditions for Reconfigurable Place/Transition Systems

This paper introduces negative application conditions for reconfigurable place/transition nets. These are Petri nets together with a set of rules that allow changing the net and its marking dynamically. Negative application conditions are a control structure that prohibits the application of a rule if certain structures are already existent. We motivate the use of negative application conditions in a short example. Subsequently the underlying theory is sketched and the results – concerning parallelism, concurrency and confluence – are presented. Then we resume the example and explicitly discuss the main results and their usefulness within the example

Process Evolution based on Transformation of Algebraic High-Level Nets with Applications to Communication Platforms

Algebraic High-Level (AHL) nets are a well-known modelling technique based on Petri nets with algebraic data types, which allows to model the communication structure and the data flow within one modelling framework. Transformations of AHL-nets – inspired by the theory of graph transformations – allow in addition to modify the communication structure. Moreover, high-level processes of AHL-nets capture the concurrent semantics of AHL-nets in an adequate way. In this paper we show how to model the evolution of communication platforms and scenarios based on transformations of algebraic high-level nets and processes. All constructions and results are illustrated by a running example showing the evolution of Apache Wave platforms and scenarios. The evolution of platforms is modelled by the transformation of AHL-nets and that of scenarios by the transformation of AHL-net processes.Our main result is a construction for the evolution of AHL-processes based on the evolution of the corresponding AHL-net. This result can be used to transform scenarios in a communication platform according to the evolution of possibly multiple actions of the platform

Petri net controlled grammars

Different types of regulated grammars have been introduced in order to supplement shortcomings of context-free grammars in applications preserving their elegant mathematical properties. However, the rapid developments in present day industry, biology, and other areas challenge to deal with various tasks which need suitable tools for their modelling and investigation. We propose Petri net controlled grammars as models for representing and analyzing of metabolic pathways in living cells where Petri nets are responsible for the structure and communication of the pathways, and grammars represent biochemical processes. On the other hand, the control by Petri nets has also theoretical interest: it extends possibilities to introduce and investigate concurrent control mechanisms in formal language theory. The thesis introduces various variants of Petri net controlled grammars using different types of Petri nets and investigates their mathematical properties such as computational power and closure properties.Los diferentes tipos de gramáticas con reescritura regulada han sido introducidas para complementar las deficiencias de las gramáticas libres del contexto en las aplicaciones, preservando sus propiedades matemáticas. Por otro lado, la rápida evolución la biología, y otras áreas actuales supone un reto para tratar de las tareas varias que necesitan las herramientas adecuadas para la elaboración de modelos e investigación. Proponemos gramáticas controladas por redes de Petri como modelos para representar y analizar los procesos bioquímicos en las células vivas donde redes de Petri son responsables de la estructura, y gramáticas representan los procesos generativos. Además, el control de redes de Petri también tiene interés teórico: amplía las posibilidades de investigar los mecanismos de control concurrente en la teoría de lenguajes formales. La tesis presenta distintas variantes de gramáticas controladas por redes de Petri e investiga sus propiedades matemáticas

Study of decentralised decision models in distributed environments

Many of today's complex systems require effective decision making within uncertain distributed environments. The central theme of the thesis considers the systematic analysis for the representation of decision making organisations. The basic concept of stochastic learning automata provides a framework for modelling decision making in complex systems. Models of interactive decision making are discussed, which result from interconnecting decision makers in both synchronous and sequential configurations. The concepts and viewpoints from learning theory and game theory are used to explain the behaviour of these structures. This work is then extended by presenting a quantitative framework based on Petri Net theory. This formalism provides a powerful means for capturing the information flow in the decision-making process and demonstrating the explicit interactions between decision makers. Additionally, it is also used for the description and analysis of systems that axe characterised as being concurrent, asynchronous, distributed, parallel and/ or stochastic activities. The thesis discusses the limitations of each modelling framework. The thesis proposes an extension to the existing methodologies by presenting a new class of Petri Nets. This extension has resulted in a novel structure which has the additional feature of an embedded stochastic learning automata. An application of this approach to a realistic decision problem demonstrates the impact that the use of an artificial intelligence technique embedded within Petri Nets can have on the performance of decision models