Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2008
In this paper, we define the notion of biRFSA which is a residual finate stateautomaton (RFSA) whose the reverse is also an RFSA. The languages recognized bysuch automata are called biRFSA languages. We prove that the canonical RFSA of abiRFSA language is a minimal NFA for this language and that each minimalNFA for this language is a sub-automaton of the canonical RFSA. This leadsto a characterization of the family of biRFSA languages.In the second part of this paper, we define the family of biseparable automata. We prove that every biseparable NFA is uniquely minimal among all NFAs recognizinga same language, improving the result of H. Tamm and E. Ukkonen for bideterministic automata.