Modeling and simulation of reactive systems with roles

To investigate the underlying principles of reactive (complex) systems such as flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), appropriate specification and modeling tools which can facilitate (besides traditional quantitative analysis), qualitative analysis involving complex and/or dynamic data and relationships, are essential. The ideal tools have to support model simulation, validation, verification and redesign, which is crucial in the development and advancement of such systems. The paper describes an object oriented approach that we have been investigating for these purposes. Advanced features embodied by dynamic role facilities have been introduced into a conventional object oriented model, which facilitates specifying, modeling and simulating such complex applications in a natural, incremental and systematic way. The role model is executable in any rule based systems with minor modification (if any). Finally, an example autonomous assembly system is used for illustration and its corresponding role model is run on a forward chaining rule based system called CLIPS.