Evaluation of Manufacturing Feature Precedence Constraints using Petri Nets

摘要

The precondition for process planning and process sequencing is existence of a valid feature precedence network. However, for complex designs with large number of features and relations between them, such network may be very complicated and very difficult to evaluate manually. This paper proposes Petri nets as a tool for modeling of feature interactions. The architecture of the prototype system is presented and the algorithm for creation of the Petri net that corresponds to the feature precedence network is described. The necessary transitions and places (based on feature model) for constraints between machining processes are identified. The feature precedence network is evaluated with the help of Petri net simulation. An implementation of the prototype system that generates and simulates Petri net for given model of manufacturing features and their relationships is described and its performance is shown on several examples.