GPenSIM: A new tool for Modelling and Analysis of Large Industrial Discrete Systems

Reggie Davidrajuh
University of Stavanger, Norway

Modelling, simulation and performance analysis of discrete-event systems are important activities in many branches of engineering, especially computer science, industrial engineering, and production engineering. Suppose the system under scrutiny is driven by discrete events (i.e. discrete-event systems); in that case, the mathematical tools, such as Petri Nets, Max-Plus algebra, Automata, and Markov chains, can be used to develop useful mathematical models. By running simulations of these models, we can analyze these systems' performance and propose performance improvements for these systems.
At the University of Stavanger, Norway, a General Purpose Petri Net Simulator (GPenSIM) tool was developed to model and simulate large-scale real-life industrial discrete-event systems. Some major industrial problems in diverse fields were solved using this tool. For example, airport capacity evaluation for the aviation authority, locating and resolving bottlenecks in the fish supply chain, scheduling the drilling processes in the oil and gas industry, optimal scheduling of jobs in grid computing, etc. Some universities worldwide are also using GPenSIM for their research on discrete-event systems. In this talk, an overview of the projects carried out using GPenSIM will be presented. Secondly, the design and implementation of GPenSIM will be presented. Thirdly, some of the important features of GPenSIM (e.g., the abstraction of resources, modularization, and parallel execution of modules) will be explained. These features help the modelling of large and complex discrete-event systems.

Biosketch

Reggie Davidrajuh has a Master's degree in Control Systems and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering (awarded by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Also, he has a D.Sc. (habilitation) degree in Information Science (AGH University of Science and Technology) and one more Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Silesian University of Technology). He is presently a professor of Informatics at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and holds a visiting professor position at the Silesian University of Technology, Poland. Dr. Davidrajuh serves on the editorial committees of many journals and has published over 150 publications in diverse areas such as supply chain, e-commerce, e-government, modelling and simulation, discrete event systems, green power generation, etc. He has organized over 60 international conferences and has given keynote speeches at four conferences. His research interests are "Modeling, simulation, and performance analysis of discrete-event systems", Algorithms, and Graph Theory. He is a senior member of IEEE and an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Technical Sciences.