You can run into similar theoretical worst-case problems as what can happen when trying to conversion for arbitrary NFA -> DFA. See beeforpork's comment:
You'd want to target a restricted subset containing patterns that use only certain "tractable", er... motifs.[1] It would make for an interesting project. Specifically, how much you have to restrict yourself in your focus while still aiming to produce something that's useful. I'm not going to pretend that I've got an up-to-date perspective that includes all available research in this area. Something like this may have already been done.
1. For lack of a better word. (I'm trying to avoid using the word "pattern" multiple times in the same sentence, where each has a different meaning.)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13603461
You'd want to target a restricted subset containing patterns that use only certain "tractable", er... motifs.[1] It would make for an interesting project. Specifically, how much you have to restrict yourself in your focus while still aiming to produce something that's useful. I'm not going to pretend that I've got an up-to-date perspective that includes all available research in this area. Something like this may have already been done.
1. For lack of a better word. (I'm trying to avoid using the word "pattern" multiple times in the same sentence, where each has a different meaning.)