Monitoring and Control of Information-Poor Systems: An Approach Based on Fuzzy Relational Models

Preface

The monitoring and control of highly uncertain systems is an important and challenging practical problem. Methods of solution based on fuzzy techniques have generated considerable interest and the research literature is extensive. Perhaps surprisingly, most of the textbooks on fuzzy systems concentrate on the modelling and control of non-linear systems and very few consider explicit ways of taking uncertainties into account. The main exceptions are the seminal texts by Kacprzyk on multi-stage fuzzy control and by Mendel on type-2 fuzzy systems (although neither of these books deals with online control applications) and the book by Sousa and Kaymak that focuses on the use of fuzzy decision-making in modelling and control.

This book describes an approach to the monitoring and control of information-poor systems that is based on fuzzy relational models which generate fuzzy outputs. Suitable for adoption as a graduate course text, it should also be of interest to practising control engineers.

The book is divided into four parts. The aim of the first part of the book is to clarify why design decisions must take account of the uncertainty associated with optimal choices, and to explain how a fuzzy relational model (FRM) can be used to generate a fuzzy output which reflects the uncertainties associated with its predictions. The aim of the second part of the book is to give a brief introduction to fuzzy decision-making and to show how it can be used to design a predictive control ...