Essential Guide to Fuzzy Systems

The recent development of the fuzzy set theory has given scientists the opportunity to model under conditions which are vague or not precisely defined, thus succeeding to solve mathematically problems whose statements are expressed in our natural language. Since Zadeh introduced the concept of fuzzy set in 1965, many efforts have been made by specialists for improving its effectiveness to deal with uncertain, ambiguous and vague situations. As a result a series of extensions and generalizations of the ordinary fuzzy set followed and several theories have been proposed as alternatives to the fuzzy set theory. The spectre of applications of those theories has been rapidly expanded during the last years covering physical sciences, economics and management, expert systems like financial planners, diagnostic, meteorological, information-retrieval, control systems, etc, industry, robotics, decision making, programming, medicine, biology, humanities, education and almost all the other sectors of the human activity, including human reasoning itself. The target of the present book is to become an essential guide to fuzzy sets and systems and to related theories. The whole book consists of ten chapters and a shorter commentary. It starts from the history and an introduction to fuzzy sets and logic and from a brief exposition of related theories. The management of the uncertainty in fuzzy environment as well as the evaluation of fuzzy data, frequently appearing nowadays in science and technology, are also studied. Assessment methods are presented using tools such as triangular fuzzy numbers, fuzzy relation equations and the grey system theory. An introduction to the theory of fuzzy graphs, a review of the hybrids of neural networks and fuzzy logic and an introduction to single valued neutrosophic numbers and the granular calculus of single valued neutrosophic functions are also contained among the topics of the book. More specialized topics include the controllability of nonlinear fuzzy fractional differential systems, the use of fuzzy probability and fuzzy possibility theory for integrating the voltage sag type detection of electrical networks, the presentation of an algorithm to highlight the importance of using statistical methods in pattern recognition, the study of the known from Physics Goursat problem for a fuzzy hyperbolic equation under the fractional Caputo g-derivative for fuzzy-valued multivariable functions as a hybrid fuzzy potential field method for the navigation of Sumo robots. It is hoped that all the above information can provide a framework to the readers of the book that enable them to proceed to a deeper study of fuzzy systems and the related to them theories.