Multi-layered fuzzy behavior fusion for real-time control of systems with many sensors

A modular architecture for real-time fuzzy mapping of sensors to control signals is presented. The function is broken down into multiple agents, each of which samples a subset of a large sensor input space. Additional fuzzy agents are employed to fuse the recommendations of the local agents. Real-time implementation without special hardware is possible by using singleton output values during fuzzy rule evaluation. A linguistic syntax for fuzzy systems development is presented, allowing complex nonlinear control functions to be defined using qualitative expressions rather than mathematical terms. Our development tool, PCFUZ, translates this syntax off-line into a data structure for fast execution at run time. Using this system, a fuzzy behavior-based reactive control system has been implemented on an autonomous mobile robot, MARGE, with great success