In this paper, we introduce probabilistic affine automata (PAA), which
are probabilistic finite generators having transitions labeled with a
ffine transformations. It is shown that PAA are capable of generating
highly complex images. Barnsley's (1988) IFS method to generate fracta
ls is a special case of PAA when the automaton happens to have only a
single state. A number of theoretical results on PAA are shown. The re
lationship between PAA, mutually recursive function systems (MRFS) and
affine regular sets is investigated.