Automaton

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An Automaton (one automaton, several automata) is a concept from mathematics. Sometimes the concept is called state machine. It is like an abstract machine.

Such a machine can be given input, which is either rejected, or accepted. Its like one of those vending machines. When you buy something, you need to put in coins (or money). If these are the right coins, they are accepted, and you get what you want. If the coins are wrong, they are rejected (and you get them back).

Internally, the automaton has different states it can be in. Feeding it input may (or may not) change its state. That way, the automaton goes through all the input, consuming one item (Which mathematicians call symbol) at a time. When no symbol is left, the automaton is in a certain state. This may be an final state. In this case the input is accepted. Otherwise, the input is rejected.

If the machine has a countable, finite number of states, it is called finite state machine. A diagram that shows all the states, and transitions of such a machine is called finite state diagram.


[edit] Problems

Like in real life, there are machines that are too complex to understand. The mathematician and computer scients therefore ask themselves if a certain automaton is minimal. If it is not minimal, there must be another automaton with fewer states that can do the same thing.

An example of an automaton is the Turing machine

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