Using a more powerful teacher to reduce the number of queries of the l* algorithm in practical applications

Abstract

In this work we propose to use a more powerful teacher to effectively apply query learning algorithms to identify regular languages in practical, real-world problems. More specifically, we define a more powerful set of replies to the membership queries posed by the L* algorithm that reduces the number of such queries by several orders of magnitude in a practical application. The basic idea is to avoid the needless repetition of membership queries in cases where the reply will be negative as long as a particular condition is met by the string in the membership query. We present an example of the application of this method to a real problem, that of inferring a grammar for the structure of technical articles. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.