Exercise: Designing Finite State Machines

Activity sheet to support Tenderfoot Unit 5: Theoretical Computers

Hair Dryer: Airhead 2020

Let's design a finite state machine that
models the behaviour of a hair dryer -
the top of the range Airhead 2020!
Here are the specifications:
Inputs:
The inputs to the hair blower can be thought
of as moving the switches in a given direction.
So, we would have 4 inputs: Slide the left
button up (let's call this "L-up"), slide the left
button down (L-down), and similarly for R-up
and R-down.
Outputs:
The machine is slightly different to the ones
developed in the Fickle Fruit activites. The
fruit activities had a singular output (a banana
or apple) in response to an input request. We
labelled the output on the transition, paired
with the input.
Here, the button will cause, say, air to be out-
put, but not just one "chunk" of air. Instead, it
makes more sense to think of the machine as being "in a continuous state of blowing air", until
another input is received.
We will therefore have NO outputs, but instead label the states to indicate what the hair blower is
doing at any given time.
States:
As explained, the states of the machine should reflect exactly what the hair blower is doing at a
given time. Thus, there would be one state called "blowing cool air fast", another one for "blowing
hot air slow" and so on.
Hint: make a state for each possible arrangement of the switches.
Transitions:
The machine should behave as you suspect. For example, if it was blowing cool air fast, and the
input R-down were received, then it should next be in the state of blowing cool air slow.
Note:
In the state shown, if L-down were received, then since there is nothing cooler than "cool", the
machine's behaviour would not change - it would stay in the same state. This would be like trying
to force the button down further than it can go. (Or perhaps we could add a state for "broken"?).

On the reverse side, or on a separate piece of paper, draw a state diagram for the Airhead
2020

Source: Ideas and resources from Maths Maniacs

www.mathmaniacs.org