Automata learning is a known technique to infer a finite state machine from a set of observations. In this paper, we revisit Angluin's original algorithm from a categorical perspective. This abstract view on the main ingredients of the algorithm lays a uniform framework to derive algorithms for other types of automata. We show a straightforward generalization to Moore and Mealy machines, which yields an algorithm already know in the literature, and we discuss generalizations to other types of automata, including weighted automata.
This is joint work with Bart Jacobs.