Unit I

INTRODUCTION TO SOFT COMPUTING AND FUZZY LOGIC 6

Introduction – Fuzzy Logic – Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Membership Functions, Operations on Fuzzy Sets,
Fuzzy Relations, Operations on Fuzzy Relations, Fuzzy Rules and Fuzzy Reasoning, Fuzzy
Inference Systems

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 Soft Computing Introduction

 Soft computing is likely to play an especially important role in science and engineering, but
eventually its influence may extend much farther. Building human-centered systems is an
imperative task for scientists and engineers in the new millennium.
 Soft Computing (SC ) is a concept that was introduced by Zadeh (1992 ), the discoverer of
fuzzy logic.

 Definition : “Soft computing is an emerging approach to computing which parallel the

remarkable ability of human mind to reason and learn in a environment of uncertainty and
imprecision”.

 The idea behind soft computing is to model cognitive behavior of human mind. Soft
computing is foundation of conceptual intelligence in machines. Unlike hard computing,
soft computing is tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation.

 Hard computing requires a precisely stated analytical model and often a lot of computation
time. Many analytical models are valid for ideal cases.

 Soft computing is a collection of methodologies that aim to exploit the tolerance for
imprecision and uncertainty to achieve tractability, robustness, and low solution cost.

 Soft computing is not precisely defined. It consists of distinct concepts and techniques
which aim to overcome the difficulties encountered in real world problems. These problems
result from the fact that our world seems to be imprecise, uncertain and difficult to
categorize.

 The basic methods included in cognitive computing are fuzzy logic, neural networks and
genetic algorithms, the methods which do not derive from classical theories.
Soft Computing combines knowledge, techniques, and methodologies from the sources
above to create intelligent systems.

 The guiding principle of soft computing is : Exploit the tolerance for imprecision,
uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation to achieve tractability, robustness and low
solution cost.

 Soft computing does not perform much symbolic manipulation, so user can view it as a new
discipline that complements conventional artificial intelligence approaches and vice versa.

 Hard computing is also called as conventional computing. It requires a precisely stated

analytical model and often a lot of computation time. Many analytical models are valid for
ideal cases. Real world problems exist in a non-ideal environment.
Unique Property of soft computing :
   Learning from experimental data.

  Soft computing techniques derive their power of generalization from approximating or

interpolating to produce outputs from previously unseen inputs by using outputs from
previous learned inputs.

  Generalization is usually done in a high-dimensional space.

Goal of soft computing

 It is a new multidisciplinary field, to construct a new generation of Artificial Intelligence,
known as Computational Intelligence.

 The main goal is to develop intelligent machines to provide solutions to real world
problems, which are not modeled or too difficult to model mathematically.

 Its aim is to develop the tolerance for Approximation, Uncertainty, Imprecision, and Partial
Truth in order to achieve close resemblance with human like decision making.

Characterize the Constituents of Soft Computing

1. One of the characteristics of soft computing methods is that they are typically used in
problems where mathematical models are not available or are intractable or too
cumbersome to be viable.

2. Another characteristic is that uncertainty inherent in many situations under study is taken
into account rather than ignored.

3. Soft computing often provides a good solution as opposed to an optimal solution.

4. Soft computing uses human concept like if-then rules, cases and conventional knowledge
representations.

5. Biologically inspired computing models (NN).

6. New optimization techniques are applied by soft computing.

7. Model free learning : Models are constructed based on the target system only.

8. New application domains : Mostly computation intensive like adaptive signal processing,
adaptive control, nonlinear system identification etc.

9. Fault tolerance: Deletion of a neuron or a rule does not destroy the system. The system
performs with lesser quality.

10. Goal driven characteristics: Only the goal is important and not the path.

Strength of Soft Computing:

1. Low cost and less time-consuming solutions are provided by soft computing.

2. Soft computing techniques can tolerate imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth to
produce high machine intelligent quotient.
3. It provides good solutions.

4. It uses human concept

Weakness of Soft Computing :

1. It requires extensive computation.

2. Soft computing does not perform much symbolic manipulation.

3. Soft computing is not precisely defined.

Difference between Hard Computing and Soft Computing

1.2 Fuzzy Logic :

Fuzzy set theory was developed by Lotfi A. Zadeh, professor for computer science at the University
of California in Berkeley, to provide a mathematical tool for dealing with the concepts used in
natural language.

Fuzzy logic is not logic that is fuzzy, but logic that is used to describe fuzziness. Fuzzy logic is the
theory of fuzzy sets, sets that calibrate vagueness. Fuzzy Logic is basically a multi-valued logic
that allows intermediate values to be defined between conventional evaluations.

Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth values of variables may be any real
number between 0 and 1. Fuzzy logic is an extension of Boolean logic used to describe
environments where there is no absolute truth and there is uncertainty.

Fuzzy logic was specifically designed to mathematically represent uncertainty and vagueness and to
provide formalized tools for dealing with the imprecision intrinsic to many problems. Fuzzy logic
provides an inference morphology that enables approximate human reasoning capabilities to be
applied to knowledge-based systems.

The theory of fuzzy logic provides a mathematical strength to capture the uncertainties associated
with human cognitive processes, such as thinking and reasoning. Fuzzy systems are knowledge-
based or rule-based systems. The heart of a fuzzy system is a knowledge base consisting of the so-
called fuzzy IF-THEN rules.

FL is a problem-solving control system methodology that lends itself to implementation in systems

ranging from simple, small, embedded micro-controllers to large, networked, multi-channel PC or
workstation-based data acquisition and control systems.

The conventional approaches to knowledge representation lack the means for representation the
meaning of fuzzy concepts. As a consequence, the approaches based on first order logic and
classical probability theory do not provide an appropriate conceptual framework for dealing with
the representation of commonsense knowledge, since such knowledge is by its nature both lexically
imprecise and non-categorical.

Essential characteristics of fuzzy logic :

1. In fuzzy logic, exact reasoning is viewed as a limiting case of approximate reasoning.
2. Everything is a matter of degree in fuzzy logic.
3. Knowledge is interpreted a collection of elastic or, equivalently, fuzzy constraint on a collection
of variables.
4. Inference is viewed as a process of propagation of elastic constraints.
5. Any logical system can be fuzzified.

Fuzzy systems are suitable for uncertain or approximate reasoning, especially for the system with a
mathematical model that is difficult to derive. Fuzzy logic allows decision making with estimated
values under incomplete or uncertain information.

Fuzzy logic is based on the idea that all things admit of degrees. For example, temperature, height,
speed, distance and beauty all come on a sliding scale. The motor is running really hot. Ram is a
very tall guy.

Fuzziness :

 For example, if pressure takes values between 0 and 50, one might label the range 20 to 30
as medium pressure.

 Medium is known as a linguistic variable. Therefore, with Boolean logic 15.0 (or even
19.99) is not a member of the medium pressure range. As soon as the pressure equals 20,
then it becomes a member.

 Fuzziness is not vague and Multi-valued logic.

 Fuzzy logic may be considered as an extension of multi-valued logic but they are somewhat
different. Multi-valued logic is still based on exact reasoning whereas fuzzy logic is
approximate reasoning.

Difference between Boolean Algebra and Fuzzy Logic:

1.3 Fuzzy Sets

A fuzzy set is a collection of objects with graded membership.

Two examples of “Sets”

1. All employees of XYZ who are over 1.8 meter in height.

2. All employees of XYZ who are tall.

The first example is a classical set, we have a universe (all XYZ employees) and a membership rule
that divides the universe into members (those over 1.8 m) and nonmembers.

The second example is a fuzzy set, some employees are definitely in the set and some are definitely
not in the set, but some are “borderline”.

This distinctions between the “ins”, the “outs”, and the “borderlines” is made more exact by the
membership function A(x).

A(x) : If we return to our second example and let A represent the fuzzy set of all tall employees
and x represent a member of the universe X (i.e. all employees), what would the function A(x)
look like ?

 A(x) = 1 if x is definitely tall

 A(x) = 0 if x is definitely not tall
0 < A(x) < 1 for borderline cases

i.e. anyone over 2.0 m is definitely tall, anyone under 1.75 m is definitely not tall and anyone
between 1.75 m and 2.0 m is partly tall and partly not tall.

Set Theoretic Operations

Union, intersection, and complement are the most basic operations on classical sets. On the basis of
these three operations, a number of identities can be established.
Corresponding to the ordinary set operations of union, intersection, and complement, fuzzy sets
have similar operations.
1.4 Fuzzy Membership Functions
1.4.1. Membership Function of one Dimension:
1.4.2. Membership Function of Two Dimension
1.5 Operations on Fuzzy sets
1.6 Fuzzy Relations
1.6.1 Tolerance and Equivalence Relation:
1.7 Operations on Fuzzy Relations

. . .

. . .
1.8 Fuzzy Rules and Reasoning
Fuzzy If-Then Rules

Fuzzy sets and fuzzy sets operations are the subjects and verbs of fuzzy logic. If-Then rule
statements are used to formulate the conditional statements that comprise fuzzy logic.
1.8.1 Fuzzy Reasoning:

The goal of fuzzy logic is to provide the basis for reasoning under non-binary information. The
ensuing reasoning system often this is referred to as “Approximate reasoning” or “Fuzzy
reasoning”. Fuzzy reasoning might be considered more exact precisely because it does not assume a
binary universe.
1.9 Fuzzy Inference System

Fuzzy Inference System is the key unit of a fuzzy logic system having decision making as its
primary work. It uses the “IF…THEN” rules along with connectors “OR” or “AND” for drawing
essential decision rules.

Characteristics of Fuzzy Inference System

Following are some characteristics of FIS −
 The output from FIS is always a fuzzy set irrespective of its input which can be fuzzy or
crisp.
  It is necessary to have fuzzy output when it is used as a controller.
 A defuzzification unit would be there with FIS to convert fuzzy variables into crisp vari-
ables.

Functional Blocks of FIS

The following five functional blocks will help you understand the construction of FIS −
 Rule Base − It contains fuzzy IF-THEN rules.
 Database − It defines the membership functions of fuzzy sets used in fuzzy rules.
 Decision-making Unit − It performs operation on rules.
 Fuzzification Interface Unit − It converts the crisp quantities into fuzzy quantities.
 Defuzzification Interface Unit − It converts the fuzzy quantities into crisp quantities. Fol-
lowing is a block diagram of fuzzy interference system.

Working of FIS
The working of the FIS consists of the following steps −
 A fuzzification unit supports the application of numerous fuzzification methods, and con-
verts the crisp input into fuzzy input.
 A knowledge base - collection of rule base and database is formed upon the conversion of
crisp input into fuzzy input.
 The defuzzification unit fuzzy input is finally converted into crisp output.