Petri net applications: a success story

Abstract Petri nets (PNs), developed in the early 1960s, have gained popularity since the 1990s as an effective method for modelling the behavior of complex systems. Starting from manufacturing systems, the first domain in which they have been successfully applied as an effective modelling and analysis tool, they have then established themselves as a modelling, analysis, control, and optimization framework in many other application fields. In this paper, an overview of applications of PNs in manufacturing, warehouse systems, transportation, robotic, and health care systems is presented. Finally, the implementation of discrete event controllers and supervisors by means of PN models on industrial control devices is discussed.