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Finite state based testing of P systems

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose an approach to P system testing based on finite state machine conformance techniques. Of the many variants of P systems that have been defined, we consider cell-like P systems which use non-cooperative transformation and communication rules. We show that a (minimal) deterministic finite cover automaton (DFCA) (a finite automaton that accepts all words in a given finite language, but can also accept words that are longer than any word in the language) provides the right approximation for the computation of a P system. Furthermore, we provide a procedure for generating test sets directly from the P system specification (without explicitly constructing the minimal DFCA model).

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Notes

  1. λ distinguishes the (non-final) “sink” state from the other (final) states of M. On the other hand, according to the results in Balanescu et al. (2003), since λ ∈ W, the “sink” state needs not be reached by S.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their very helpful comments that allowed the improvement of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Pitesti, Str Targu din Vale 1, 110040, Pitesti, Romania

    Florentin Ipate

  2. Department of Computer Science, The University of Sheffield, Regent Court, Portobello Street, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK

    Marian Gheorghe

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  1. Florentin Ipate
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  2. Marian Gheorghe
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Correspondence to Florentin Ipate.

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Ipate, F., Gheorghe, M. Finite state based testing of P systems. Nat Comput 8, 833–846 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-008-9099-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-008-9099-3

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