A Novel Method for Converting Colored Petri Nets to Ladder Diagram in the Automation of Automated Manufacturing Systems

The Ladder Diagram (LD) is an industry-standard programming language for constructing automated manufacturing systems (AMSs) control algorithms. Petri net (PN) theory, on the other hand, is a mathematical and graphical modeling tool for AMSs. Multiple types of PN-based LDs are designed for AMSs with highly complicated LD structures. Thus, it is necessary to propose a technique that can assist in the minimization of the structural complexity of LDs. The main purpose of this study is to propose a methodology for the implementation of LDs in AMSs. First, a colored resource-oriented Petri net (CROPN) is developed for modeling and guaranteeing the deadlock-free behavior of AMS. Second, a ladder diagram CROPN (LDCROPN) is constructed in order to transform the CROPN into an LD. The proposed LDCROPN is assessed using instances from the literature. The results show that the LDCROPN is effective, has a simpler structure, and has less computational overhead than existing techniques.