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Finite State Machines

Murray Cole

Finite State Machines

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Embedded Systems

Already 10’s of processor chips per person in the world

There will “soon” be 100’s or 1000’s

Most of these are not in “computers” but are embedded in

everyday real world systems (cars, TVs, vending machines,
watches, (people?!))

These often implement quite simple reactive systems

Finite State Machines

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Reactive Systems

Wait to receive an input

Respond with an output

Response may depend upon finite history (i.e. not just the most
recent input)

Finite State Machines

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Finite State Machines (Automata)

A conceptual tool for modelling reactive systems

Pre-date “Computer Science”

Force us to make precise definitions (unlike natural language)

Can then implement in hardware or software or both

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FSM - Formal Definition

An input alphabet, (“sigma”), which is a set of symbols, one for

each distinct possible input (e.g. buttons, coin slots, ...)

An output alphabet, (“lambda”), which is another set of symbols,

one for each distinct possible output (e.g. lights, can dispensed, ...)

Some named states, each capturing some state of the system (e.g.
“coin inserted but no can dispensed”), drawn as circles, one
indicated as the start state with an arrow

A collection of transitions, each an arrow between two states,

labelled with the input which activates it and the output which
results (or (“epsilon”) indicating no input or output respectively)


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An FSM for a Simple Ticket Machine
m/
1 2 m/
t/p

r/d

t/
r/

for insert money, request ticket, request refund






for print ticket, deliver refund



for convenience, label the same arrow with several i/o pairs

for convenience, just write as a blank



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FSM Traces

For some FSM called , a trace describes one possible sequence of

activities and is

1. A finite sequence of alternating states and transition labels

starting and ending with a state: .





 





2. The first state, , is the start state of .




3. For each state, label, state sequence appearing in the

 







sequence, there must be a transition in from state to


 


labelled .




 


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m/
1 2 m/
t/p

r/d

t/
r/

For the ticket machine

m/ m/ m/ r/d












is a trace, but

m/ m/ m/ r/d












isn’t.
The overall behaviour of a FSM is the set of all its possible traces.

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Acceptors

Acceptors are FSMs with

empty output alphabet (all outputs are )


some states marked as “accepting” (double circle)

Input sequence is accepted if it can generate a trace from the start

state to an accepting state.
The language accepted by an (acceptor) FSM is the set of all input
sequences which it accepts.

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Acceptors

0 0
A B C

1 1
0 1

1,0

Accepts strings of 0s and 1s in which the number of 0s so far never

exceeds the number of 1s so far by more than one and vice versa

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Determinism

FSMs in which for every state, there is at most one transition

leaving the state for each input symbol are called determinstic.

Other FSMs are called non-deterministic

Sometimes easier to define non-deterministic FSMs

Can always convert a non-deterministic FSM into an equivalent

deterministic FSM

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What FSMs can’t do

FSM states do not have any memory inside

The FSM “remembers” simply being in a given state, so that “Have

seen three 0’s” and “Have seen four 0’s” must be two different
states, not one state with a counter variable inside

Consequently, FSMs can’t “count” arbitrarily large histories

– accept all strings including 287 0’s - possible
– accept all strings with equal numbers of 0’s and 1’s - not
possible

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Summary

Embedded and reactive systems

Finite State Machines to model these

FSM traces

Acceptors and Transducers

Determinism

Limits to FSM power

Finite State Machines