Hi all

 

I'm trying to construct a cover for a finite state machine and need to devise a strategy beforehand.  Thing is I'm having a little trouble.  Could anyone suggest a generic strategy that can be used for constructing a cover (things like how I would identify the machines alphabet and so on).

 

Not sure if everyone else calls them covers, so a quick description:-

 

FSM (M) has a finite number of states, so it should be possible to find a finite set of strings (C) which lets you reach each and every state in M from the initial state.  ie given any state s you can find a string w = a1a2....am in C for which initial state -> a1.....->am s is a path in M.

 

Any stratagies would be greatly appreciated, thanks

 

Stu