What Is Fuzzy Logic?: Natural Language Binary
What Is Fuzzy Logic?: Natural Language Binary
Fuzzy logic is an approach to computing based on "degrees of truth" rather than the
usual "true or false" (1 or 0) Boolean logic on which the modern computer is based.
The idea of fuzzy logic was first advanced by Lotfi Zadeh of the University of
California at Berkeley in the 1960s. Zadeh was working on the problem of computer
understanding of natural language. Natural language -- like most other activities in life
and indeed the universe -- is not easily translated into the absolute terms of 0 and 1.
Whether everything is ultimately describable in binary terms is a philosophical
question worth pursuing, but in practice, much data we might want to feed a computer
is in some state in between and so, frequently, are the results of computing. It may
help to see fuzzy logic as the way reasoning really works and binary, or Boolean,
logic is simply a special case of it.
Comparin
g the degrees of truth with Boolean logic vs. fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic in AI
In artificial intelligence (AI) systems, fuzzy logic is used to imitate human reasoning
and cognition. Rather than strictly binary cases of truth, fuzzy logic includes 0 and 1
as extreme cases of truth but with various intermediate degrees of truth.
As a result, fuzzy logic is well-suited for the following:
In automobiles, fuzzy logic is used for gear selection and is based on factors
such as engine load, road conditions and style of driving.
In copy machines, fuzzy logic is used to adjust drum voltage based on factors
such as humidity, picture density and temperature.
In aerospace, fuzzy logic is used to manage altitude control for satellites and
spacecrafts based on environmental factors.