MISS-RdP©

Interactive Modelling and System Simulation by Petri Nets

© IXI Copyright 1992-1998

TIMED, STOCHASTIC & COLORED PETRI NETS

HYBRID SIMULATION

 

MISS-RdP is a software tool developed by IXI in coordination with an industrial partnership composed by AEROSPATIALE, ALCATEL ESPACE, CENA (French Traffic Control Research Center) and CNES (French Space Agency)..

Based upon the Timed Stochastic and Interpreted Petri Net technique, MISS-RdP computes operational performances statistics with Monte-Carlo Simulation.

The tool is particularly adapted to take into account Deterministic Events (decisions, delays,...) or Random Events (failures, repair times,...).

Thanks to Simulation, classical restrictions applied to Stochastic Petri Nets are overcome.

So results for both the transient and stationary periods can be provided with MISS-RdP.

A graphic interface makes possible to edit the model and to apply parameters, without the inconveniences of a restricting syntax.

A concept of messages (conditions/actions related to transitions), which brings modularity and structuration to the model, is a determinant asset with regard to validation, evolutivity and potential re-use of the model.

A concept of states and events enables to dissociate the model from the measures and observations resulting from the simulation, and facilitates the sensitivity analysis.

 

The Petri Nets supported by MISS-RdP are used in many industrial application fields (aeronautics, defense, manufacturing, nuclear, space, traffic control, transport...) thanks to their mathematical and graphical power, and because they allow to simulate dynamic behaviours.

The greatest interest of such a tool consists in the easy modelling of:

• task synchronization

• parallel activities

• shared resources

• timed phenomena (random events or delays)

• determinist as well as undeterminist phenomena.

MISS-RdP is generally used to assist the definition (design) of:

• system architecture,

• industrial processes,

• logistic support processes

• exploitation strategies.

It enables the computation of operational availability and exploitation costs, and is very efficient to perform trade-off and sensitivity analysis. It is also used to help in the definition of spare parts and in the planning and scheduling of production.

The characteristics of MISS-RdP are particularly suited to the analysis of industrial systems or processes which generally present:

• redunded and reconfigurable architectures

• dynamic behaviours and parallel processes with timed tasks and synchronisms

• limited (and shared) resources to implement the functions and services

• failure risks

• degraded configurations...

 

MISS-RdP, developped in C++, is available on Unix work-stations. The graphic interface and the printing module respectively follow the X11/MOTIF and PostScript standards.

MISS-RdP results can be exploited through any external spreadsheet program.

MISS-RdP is available in english and french versions. A complete documentation is available including Installation Manual and User Manual.

A new version will be also available on PC environment at the end of 1998.

A training course on Petri Nets is also proposed with exercices and industrial examples (1 or 3 days).

Three versions of MISS-RdP are available:

• Standard version

which supports the Timed Stochastic and Interpreted Petri Nets.

 

• Colored version

which is particularly adapted to allow the modelling of the following aspects:

• Individual identification of data (resources) which follow a same process:

• Various actions (processing) on data, depending on their characteristics

• Sequential processing (consideration of the order...)

• Change of data characteristics through an action

• Association / Dissociation of data.

Such modelling is possible thanks to data (" colors ") which are associated to the tokens. Such data are a list of fields, each field corresponding to an information transported by the token.

 

• Hybrid version (under development)

which is particularly adapted to allow the modelling of production systems : modelling of interaction between the process (mainly continuous) and the control (mainly discontinuous). In this way, the hybrid version is opened for coupling with continuous simulators.

Such an hybrid version is a high performance simulator well suited to support planning and scheduling activities in a production management environment, and to evaluate operational performances.

 

Some specific developments are performed by industrials in order to integrate MISS-RdP into their System Analysis Workshop.

The main evolutions consist in :

• developing several libraries of generic elementary models,

• developing interfaces to perform system modelling directly from existing libraries, without access to the Petri nets.

For more information contact:

Stéphane GALINIER
sgalinier@gfi.fr
tel : +33615051777

See also MISS-RdP page on the tool data base.