LTL to B\"uchi Automata Translation: Fast and More Deterministic

TL;DR

This paper presents optimized algorithms for translating LTL formulas into B"uchi automata, resulting in faster, more deterministic automata with improved performance over existing tools.

Contribution

The authors introduce specific algorithmic improvements for LTL to B"uchi automata translation, enhancing speed and reducing non-determinism, and implement these in LTL2BA.

Findings

Faster translation times compared to previous methods

Smaller automata with reduced non-determinism

Outperforms SPOT in several benchmarks

Abstract

We introduce improvements in the algorithm by Gastin and Oddoux translating LTL formulae into B\"uchi automata via very weak alternating co-B\"uchi automata and generalized B\"uchi automata. Several improvements are based on specific properties of any formula where each branch of its syntax tree contains at least one eventually operator and at least one always operator. These changes usually result in faster translations and smaller automata. Other improvements reduce non-determinism in the produced automata. In fact, we modified all the steps of the original algorithm and its implementation known as LTL2BA. Experimental results show that our modifications are real improvements. Their implementations within an LTL2BA translation made LTL2BA very competitive with the current version of SPOT, sometimes outperforming it substantially.