Modular Petri net models of communicating agents: A GPenSIM approach

Abstract

Communicating agents are an important part of intelligent machines. However, modeling communicating agent with Petri nets is not an easy task as the modeling usually yields large yet less expressive models. In this paper, a modular Petri net approach is introduced for modeling communicating agents. The new approach is implemented in the tool General Purpose Petri net Simulator (GPenSIM). With this modular approach, subsystems can be modeled either as IO port-driven modules or as IO buffer-driven modules, yielding smaller yet powerful modules. In this paper: firstly, a brief literature review is presented on developing modular Petri net models. Secondly, modeling subsystems as modules are discussed. Finally, an application example is presented which involves a number of communicating agents. This work shows how modularization with GPenSIM can help modeling of large discrete systems where the communication infrastructure is dominated by communicating agents.