TELEMETRY AS AUTOMATA

Abstract

In its simplest form an automaton can be considered a set of inputs, a process, and a set of outputs. Certainly telemetry can be thought of in this way as well. Automata theory is a cross between mathematics and computer science which considers how to precisely define the inputs, the outputs, and the process of translating the one into the other. The input to an automaton can be described using a formal grammar. Two standard bit stream encodings, PCM matrices and MIL-STD-1553, are described using grammars. An example of how a grammar can be used to decode a bit stream is given. Further, ambiguity and complexity of bit stream encodings are discussed in the context of grammars. It is thus illustrated how grammars can be used to cleanly define and decode telemetry bit streams.