Fuzzy Logic, combined with expert systems, provide the ability to make your solutions more intuitive and natural, with less rules, and with greater readability and maintainability. It also makes your systems more powerful by modelling problems hard to solve using traditional techniques. Fuzzy Logic provides the following advantages for developing systems:
•Models complex, non-linear problems ("the difficult problems")
•Improved Cognitive Modeling between the expert system and the underlying problem and decision making process
•Able to represent multiple "experts" on a problem, including conflicting rules and decision making!
•Reduces expert system complexity, requiring less rules which are also more easily understandable
•Improved, more consistent and mathematically sound modeling of uncertainty and possibilities
Fuzzy Logic has wide applicability in most every domain where a conventional expert system could be used (and beyond!). Fuzzy Logic is a great match for process and control engineering problems, business logic and risk analysis, and information decision support systems. For example, Fuzzy Logic can solve problems to automatically brake trains to a stop, back 18 wheeler trucks up to a loading dock, assess project risk, calculate pricing for new products, balance a pendulum, control mixing of flow of liquids, etc.
Next, Fuzzy Set Theory
