Generating Minimal Nondeterministic Finite Automata Using a Parallel Algorithm

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to develop a parallel algorithm that, on input of a learning sample, identifies a regular language by means of a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA). A sample is a pair of finite sets containing positive and negative examples. Given a sample, a minimal NFA or the range of possible sizes of such an NFA, that represents the target regular language is sought. We define the task of finding an NFA, which accepts all positive examples and rejects all negative ones, as a constraint satisfaction problem, and then propose a parallel algorithm to solve the problem. The results of computational experiments on the variety of test samples are reported.