In computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, Constraint automata are a formalism to describe the behavior and possible data flow in coordination models. It was introduced by Arbab et al. as a variation of finite automata for model checking

Model checking

In computer science, model checking refers to the following problem:Given a model of a system, test automatically whether this model meets a given specification....

 Reo connector circuits.

Constraint automata can be considered generalizations of probabilistic automata

Probabilistic automaton

In mathematics and computer science, the probabilistic automaton is a generalization of the non-deterministic finite automaton; it includes the probability of a given transition into the transition function, turning it into a transition matrix or stochastic matrix. Thus, the probabilistic...

, in which data constraints, instead of probabilities, label state transitions and influence their firing.

See also

• Model checking
  Model checking
  In computer science, model checking refers to the following problem:Given a model of a system, test automatically whether this model meets a given specification....
  
  
• Finite automata
• Probabilistic automaton
  Probabilistic automaton
  In mathematics and computer science, the probabilistic automaton is a generalization of the non-deterministic finite automaton; it includes the probability of a given transition into the transition function, turning it into a transition matrix or stochastic matrix. Thus, the probabilistic...
  
  
• Colored Petri net