Fuzzy logic: issues, contentions and perspectives

There has been a rapid growth in the number and variety of applications of fuzzy logic. The successes of fuzzy logic have also generated a skeptical reaction. Most of the criticisms directed at fuzzy logic are rooted in a misunderstanding of what it is and/or a lack of familiarity with it. In many cases, what is not recognized is that the term fuzzy logic (FL) is actually used in two different senses. In a narrow sense, fuzzy logic (FLn) is a logical system which is an extension of multivalued logic and is intended to serve as a logic of approximate reasoning. But in a wider sense, fuzzy logic (FLw) is more or less synonymous with the theory of fuzzy sets (FST). Today the term fuzzy logic is used predominantly in its wider sense. It is in this sense that any field X can be fuzzified-and hence generalized by replacing the concept of a crisp set in X by a fuzzy set. What is gained through fuzzification is greater generality, higher expressive power, an enhanced ability to model real-world phenomena and a methodology for exploiting the tolerance for imprecision. Most of the applications of fuzzy logic relate to control in the context of industrial systems and consumer products. What is discernible, however, is (a) the trend toward the use of fuzzy logic in task-oriented-rather than set-point-oriented-control; and (b) the incorporation of fuzzy logic and neural network techniques in the conception and design of complex systems in which control and expert system techniques are used in combination