Convert regular expression to Automaton I'm trying to construct a finite-state automaton from the following regular expression:

$$
(a|ba)(a|ba)^*(b|ab)^*
$$

I know that from
$$
(a|ba)
$$

the automaton should look something like this:

automaton http://cdn.imghack.se/images/5ab1437745d2a53d4630619819074d6c.jpg

from 
$$
(a|ba)^*
$$

it should look like this I guess:

automaton2 http://cdn.imghack.se/images/e1dc6ac63c6d967086d1f40aebf62c51.jpg

and from 
$$
(b|ab)^*
$$

is pretty much the same as the last one, the thing is I don't know how to unite them in one automaton.

I would appreciate any help in this matter 

PS: I'm sorry for the images I'm still learning how to work with the automata editor jflap...
Regular expressions can be turned into (nondeterministic) finite automata very easily. What your automata are missing are start- and final states.

Once you have marked those, its very simple: If you have the automaton $A_1$ for $(a|ba)$ and $A_2$ for $(a|ba)^*$, to get an automaton for $(a|ba)(a|ba)^*$, just add $\varepsilon$-transitions from all finite states of $A_1$ to the start state of $A_2$. (This is btw part of the Thompson-construction, in case you want to look it up :) ) If needed, you can then remove all $\varepsilon$-transitions.

If you directly want to construct a $\varepsilon$-free NFA, you can use Glushkovs construction.