Virtual learning simulator of a flexible manufacturing line using Petri NET toolbox

: Several intelligent tutoring systems and e-learning platforms developed in the last decade in engineering domains (such as automotive, industrial robotics, manufacturing, energy, electrical engineering, computer engineering, electronics, oil and gas engineering, chemical engineering) integrate various software tools that facilitate the student learning process by studying simulations of some real-world applications. Examples of such tools applied in the manufacturing education are: different types of Petri Nets (including coloured Petri Nets), different toolboxes from Matlab, AnyLogic and FlexSim. Moreover, artificial intelligence provides methods and techniques that can significantly improve the performance of developed simulations. The paper presents a simulator developed using Petri NET toolbox in scope of representing the process of a manufacturing line for better understanding of the correlation between the theoretical control and the behaviour of the system. It tackles in a different way the learning process addressed to students to a more practical view of the control algorithm.