Reversing Unbounded Petri Nets

International audienceIn Petri nets, computation is performed by executing transitions. An effect-reverse of a given transition b is a transition that, when executed, undoes the effect of b. A transition b is reversible if it is possible to add enough effect-reverses of b so to always being able to undo its effect, without changing the set of reachable markings. This paper studies the transition reversibility problem: in a given Petri net, is a given transition b reversible? We show that, contrarily to what happens for the subclass of bounded Petri nets, the transition reversibility problem is in general undecidable. We show, however, that the same problem is decidable in relevant subclasses beyond bounded Petri nets, notably including all Petri nets which are cyclic, that is where the initial marking is reachable from any reachable marking. We finally show that some non-reversible Petri nets can be restructured, in particular by adding new places, so to make them reversible, while preserving their behaviour

Foundations of reversible computation

Reversible computation allows computation to proceed not only in the standard, forward direction, but also backward, recovering past states. While reversible computation has attracted interest for its multiple applications, covering areas as different as low-power computing, simulation, robotics and debugging, such applications need to be supported by a clear understanding of the foundations of reversible computation. We report below on many threads of research in the area of foundations of reversible computing, giving particular emphasis to the results obtained in the framework of the European COST Action IC1405, entitled “Reversible Computation - Extending Horizons of Computing”, which took place in the years 2015–2019