Machine generated contents note: Preface -- Authors -- List of Symbols -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Sets -- 1.2 Relations -- 1.3 Functions -- 1.4 Fuzzy Subsets -- 1.5 Semigroups -- 1.6 Finite-State Machines -- 1.7 Finite-State Automata -- 1.8 Languages and Grammars -- 1.9 Nondeterministic Finite-State Automata -- 1.10 Relationships Between Languages and Automata -- 1.11 Pushdown Automata -- 1.12 Exercises -- 2 Max-Min Automata -- 2.1 Max-Min Automata -- 2.2 General Formulation of Automata -- 2.3 Classes of Automata -- 2.4 Behavior of Max-Min Automata -- 2.5 Equivalences and Homomorphisms of Max-Min Automata -- 2.6 Reduction of Max-Min Automata -- 2.7 Definite Max-Min Automata -- 2.8 Reduction of Max-Min Machines -- 2.9 Equivalences -- 2.10 Irreducibility and Minimality -- 2.11 Nondeterministic and Deterministic Case -- 2.12 Exercises.