Petri Nets Tracking Control for Electro-pneumatic Systems Automation

In this work, an output tracking control problem is introduced for electro-pneumatic systems (ENS) modeled by interpreted Petri nets (IPN). In this framework, IPN models for the most common components in ENS are present. Later, it is explained how to compute a plant model and an specification model as IPN's. The specification can allow to concurrently activate several actuators. Afterwards, an algorithm is introduced to compute the controller and the closed-loop system as IPN's. It is demonstrated that the proposed controller solves the tracking control problem, ensuring boundedness and deadlock-freeness of the closed-loop system. The resulting controller can be translated to a Ladder Diagram for its implementation with a provided algorithm. The introduced algorithms are illustrated through a case study. The aim of this work is to provide a control framework that is simple and convenient for practitioners in the field of ENS's, but at the same time is based on a formal model for analysis purposes.