LTL to Büchi Automata Translation: Fast and More Deterministic

Abstract

We introduce improvements in the algorithm by Gastin and Oddoux translating LTL formulae into Buchi automata via very weak alternating co-Buchi automata and generalized Buchi 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.