Dining Philosophers Petri Net



This Petri net models 5 philosophers who are dining together. The philosophers each have a fork next to them, both of which they need in order to eat. As there is only five forks it is not possible for all 5 philosophers to be eating at the same time. The Petri net shown here models a philosopher that takes both forks simulataneously thus preventing the situation where some philosophers may only have one fork but are not able to pick up the second fork as their neighbour has already done so.


The Petri net browser supports the following functions:

Inserting Petri Net components:

  • Insertion of Place and Transition (Select Circle or Square button and click in editor pane).
  • The connection of objects. (Select Arc button click on first object and then on second object)
  • The dragging of objects (Select Pointer button and mouse down drag)

    Inserting/deleting tokens on places:

  • Select the places for which an initial token is required and press the token button. Every press of the token button will insert another token
  • Select the places for which a token is to be deleted and press the delete token button. Every press of the token button will delete one token

    Deleting Petri Net components:

  • Place and Transition (With the Pointer button down select the elements to delete and press the Delete key.
  • Arcs. (Select Arc button click on first object and then on second object. If an arc already exists it will be deleted)


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    Last updated May 11, 1998 by Robert Esser