Graph grammars and Petri net transformations

Abstract

The aim of this paper is a tutorial introduction to graph grammars and graph transformations on one hand and to Petri net transformations on the other hand. In addition to an introduction to both areas the paper shows how they have influenced each other. The concurrency concepts and semantics of graph transformations have been generalized from those of Petri net using the fact that the token game of Petri nets can be considered as a graph transformation step on discrete graphs. On the other hand each Petri net can be considered as a graph, such that graph transformations can be used to change the net structure of Petri nets. This leads to a rule based approach for the development of Petri nets, where the nets in different development stages are related by Petri net transformations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.