Use of petri nets for virtual prototyping project scheduling

This paper analyses the developing request for scheduling in virtual prototyping engineering, discusses the lack of modeling ability of traditional project scheduling methods, and puts forward making use of Petri nets based models to describe, simulate project scheduling so that they assist scheduling manager of virtual prototyping project to make decision. Then this paper explains the following key modeling technologies in detail, puts forward the use of elementary net system to model personnel scheduling, introduces the use of P/T-net to model resource scheduling, combines known timed Petri net and hierarchical net to model WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), and shows the use of advanced net system including colored Petri net to model multi-resources scheduling. Based on these models, this paper gives the structure of the Petri nets-in-loop scheduling control and the standardization of these models. Finally, the typical application of Petri nets in COSIM[6], a supporting platform of virtual prototyping, is introduced.