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This thesis presents the development of a new modeling technique and associated reference models which addresses the "message passing" problem in distributed manufacturing systems. The modeling technique which integrates IDEF0, color timed Petri nets, and object oriented paradigm allows system integrators to investigate the "message passing" capability of a manufacturing system. The reference models consist of a set of templates that capture the commonalities of the real world components and the interactions among these components. The templates are mathematical and graphical representations. The properties of the reference model regarding the message passing path and the delay times are identified. These properties will help system integrators to identify design pitfalls. The modeling technique and the templates have been applied to manufacturing systems in laboratory settings at Georgia Tech. The models developed using the modeling technique and reference model provide a good medium for the team members to communicate and to facilitate analyzing message passing problems. The models are also used to identify initialization and potential deadlock problems. Also, algorithms are provided to determine both the message path(s) and the lower and upper bounds of the time delay associated with each message path.

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