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This paper presents a framework based on Petri Net (PN) and Multi Agent System (MAS) techniques for modeling autonomous multi-robots systems, which require high interaction among the robots (in some cases with humans), synchronization of movements, implementation of cooperation strategies, and a strong notion of the physical environment. The framework considers all phases of the developing process, starting with the abstraction phase and going up to the implementation of the model, to ensure an efficient and flexible approach for specifying the proposed control system architecture. An application example details this solution, in which multi-robots systems can perform tasks and collaborative behaviors considering the cited requirements.

The manufacturing control system must immediately react to a variation in product, process specification, fault occurrence, changes in the resources functional capabilities, and other operational factors. Besides, to gain competitive advantage, distributed productive systems must work in cooperation with each other. To effectively integrate these heterogeneous envi-ronments, this paper proposes a method to combine holonic control system, service-oriented architecture and Petri net (PN) techniques. The PN models represent the workflow of the design method itself, the structure and the dynamic of the control system. To demonstrate the advantages of the proposal, an application example of the manufacturing system is described.