On Development of Fuzzy Controller: The Case of Gaussian and Triangular Membership Functions

Abstract

In recent years, the use of Fuzzy set theory has been popularised for handling overlap domains in control engineering but this has mostly been within the context of triangular membership functions. In actual practice however, such domains are hardly triangular and in fact for most engineering applications the membership functions are usually Gaussian and sometimes cosine. In an earlier paper, we derived explicit Fourier series expressions for systematic and dynamic computation of grade of membership in the overlap and non-overlap regions of triangular Fuzzy sets. In another paper, we extended the methodology to cover cases of cosine, exponential and Gaussian Fuzzy sets by presenting explicit Fourier series representation for encoding fuzziness in the overlap and non-overlap domains of Fuzzy sets. This current paper presents the development of a “Fuzzy Controller” device, which incorporates the formal mathematical representation for computing grade of membership of Gaussian and triangular Fuzzy sets. It is shown that triangular approximation of Gaussian membership function in Fuzzy control can lead to wrong linguistic classification which may have adverse effects on operational and control decisions. The development of the Fuzzy controller demonstrates that the proposed technique can indeed be incorporated in engineering systems for dynamic and systematic computation of grade of membership in the overlap and non-overlap regions of Fuzzy sets; and thus provides a basis for the design of embedded Fuzzy controller for mission critical applications.