The main purpose of this talk is to introduce a new automata model, hybrid set-vector automata, that naturally embed deterministic finite state automata and finite automata weighted over a field.

We take a category-theoretic approach, which provides a neat understanding of minimisation. It is well known that category theory offers a unifying view of some automata theory results. For example, minimisation of deterministic automata (over finite words) and Shützenberger’s automata weighted over fields, arise from the same categorical reasons.

In the first part of the talk, I will discuss about how to model and minimise automata in categories. Traditionally, automata are seen either as algebras for a functor plus a final map, possibly in a monoidal category, or as coalgebras for a functor plus an initial map. We propose yet another view of automata as functors from an input category to an output category.

The new hybrid set-vector automata can be modelled by taking the output category to be a free-colimit completion of the category of finite-dimensional vector spaces under a certain class of colimits.

This is joint work with Thomas Colocombet.