Finite branching automata.
Ivan M. Havel · Czech digital mathematics library · 1974
A new abstract device, the finite branching automaton, is introduced and explored.The main source of motivation for this notion can be found in the area of state-space problem solving.The finite branching automaton differs from the ordinary finite automaton in its accepting behavior: instead of strings it accepts languages and thus it recognizes a family of languages rather than a single language.The structure of recognizable families is investigated and a necessary and sufficient condition for a family of languages to be recognizable is obtained.Some operations on families of languages are also examined in order to determine whether they preserve recognizability or not.