# Computing Kitchen

Everyday computational science

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# Finite state machines as a design pattern for scientific code

The mathematical definition of a finite state machine is a template for a design.

# Introduction

We write code all the time that does some sort of time step. It could be a custom integration for a particular ordinary differential equation. It could be a stochastic Markov method that carries state from the last two steps. Every time we write code like this, there are some parts that are general, such as multiplying a transformation matrix by a vector, and there are some parts that are particular to this problem, such as initializing the vector from a single parameter. Each time we write code like this, we try to make the code clearer and more useful by finding a structure that balances the general and the particular.

Mathematicians use a model of computation called a finite state machine (FSM) in order to understand how computation, itself works. We can use this model of computation as a guide to writing all kinds of time-stepping code. The mathematical background gives some reassurances about how generally this guide applies, and it offers a way to decompose a time-stepping function into composable parts that have recognizable function.

More importantly, a function written as a FSM will have an interface that makes it easy for other code to call. Our highest goal is to be able to write several simulations which have different underlying time-stepping algorithms, but our goal is to still be able to use the same code on top of them for optimization or parameter tuning.

There are several definitions of finite state machines. I’ll present two versions here, one common version, called the Moore machine, and one less common, called a machine in a category (Arbib and Manes 1974).

# Moore model

The Moore model is a sequential machine that has five parts. Some of the five parts are data and some are functions.

• State—When we think of a FSM, we think of the state, $$Q$$, as being a known set of internal states.

• Input Token—Every time step, we feed some data to the finite state machine. We call each new value $x$, and each $$x$$ is from the class $$X_0$$ of allowed inputs. It’s the domain of the FSM.

• Output Token—The output of the FSM is a value $$y$$ from the class $$Y$$ of possible outputs.

• Dynamics—The heart of a FSM is a function that transforms the state and an input token into a new state. As an equation, it’s $$\delta: Q \times X_0\rightarrow Q$$.

• Output function—The output function is equivalent to an observer pattern. It transforms the state and the input into the output, $$\lambda:Q\times X_0\rightarrow Y$$.

There is also an initial state that’s part of the machine.

From this, we can see a software design pattern that suggests the following structure.

dynamics <- function(state, step_input) {
...
new_state
}

output_function <- function(state, step_input) {
...
fsm_output
}

fsm_step <- function(fsm, step_input) {
output_function <- output_function(fsm$state, step_input) fsm$state <- dynamics(fsm$state, step_input) } y <- fsm_step(fsm, x)  It’s a little weird, from a software perspective, that the Moore machine calculates output of the FSM separately from calculating the next state. There is another version of this called the Mealy machine that doesn’t have this behavior. People who work in linear control have reasons for this structure, and I default to trusting them, in the absence of further research. This pattern implicitly organizes a time-stepping algorithm into input, output, state, dynamics, and observer. That, itself, is useful for clarifying when two time-stepping algorithms have the same dynamics, but different observers. It can also force the author to clarify what all of the inputs are. For instance, the random number generator can be considered part of the state, or each set of random numbers can be considered part of the input. # Machines in a category A paper by Arbib and Manes asks how to write a FSM such that it will be possible to express not just linear control problems but also stochastic automata and tree automata (Arbib and Manes 1974). They want to unify the interface to these types so that it’s possible to write an inverse problem on top of them. An inverse problem asks which inputs would lead to a given set of outputs. It’s an example of a higher-level function that would reuse a time-stepping function, if that function had the right interface. They suggest a generalization of the Moore model described above. Instead of thinking of the input to the \fsm as a set of tokens$x$from$X_0$, they suggest thinking of the input as a set of transformations which take$Q \rightarrow Q\times X_0$. In other words, you don’t pass in data. You pass in something that transforms the internal state of the \fsm into a new internal state. The machine in a category has seven parts. • State—This is the same state, $$Q$$. • Input process—Each input to the FSM is a functor, $$X$$, that transforms $$X:Q\rightarrow Q\times X$$. • Output token—Still a token $$y$$ from $$Y$$. • Dynamics—The dynamics now acts on the state, $$Q$$, not the state and a new token. • Initial state object—The initial state object is any representation of the state, but it has help from the next in the list. • Initial state process—Like the input process, the initial state is a function that transform the initial state object into a valid internal state, $$Q$$. • Output token—This is a value $$y$$ in the class $$Y$$. • Output process—This observer transforms the state into an output token, $$\beta:Q\rightarrow Y$$. It doesn’t take the input token as an argument. This list is similar to the Moore machine above, but it gives us more ways to differentiate among time-stepping algorithms. The input process can be, for code, a strategy pattern that accepts different kinds of inputs, as long as they can be combined with the FSM state, $$Q$$. The initial state object could be some simple parameterization which the initial state process turns into a state, $$Q$$. That makes the initial state process a builder pattern. dynamics <- function(state) { ... new_state } output_function <- function(state) { ... fsm_output } input_process <- function(input_token) { function(state) { state + input_token } } fsm_step <- function(fsm, step_input) { state <- step_input(fsm$state)
output_function <- output_function(state)
fsm\$state <- dynamics(state)
}

y <- fsm_step(fsm, input_process(x))


# Conclusion

This design pattern is a central structure for time-stepping algorithms. It separates the more pure math of the dynamics from translations of input and output parameters and data.