Examining the continuity of type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems

This paper studies the continuity of the input-output mappings of fuzzy logic systems (FLSs), including both type-1 (T1) and interval type-2 (IT2) FLSs. We show that a T1 FLS being an universal approximator is equivalent to saying that a T1 FLS has a continuous input-output mapping. We also derive the condition under which a T1 FLS is discontinuous. For IT2 FLSs using Karnik-Mendel type-reduction and center-of-sets defuzzification, we derive the conditions under which continuous and discontinuous input-output mappings can be obtained. Our results will be very useful in selecting the parameters of the membership functions to achieve a desired continuity (e.g., for most traditional modeling and control applications) or discontinuity (e.g., for hybrid and switched systems modeling and control).