Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controllers: A Way Forward for Fuzzy Systems in Real World Environments

Type-1 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) have been applied to date with great success to different applications. However, for many real-world applications, there is a need to cope with large amounts of uncertainties. The traditional type-1 FLCs that use crisp type-1 fuzzy sets cannot directly handle such uncertainties. Type-2 FLCs that use type-2 fuzzy sets can handle such uncertainties to produce a better performance. Hence, type-2 FLCs will have the potential to overcome the limitations of type-1 FLCs and produce a new generation of fuzzy controllers with improved performance for many applications which require handling high levels of uncertainty. This chapter will provide an overview of the interval type-2 FLCs and their advantages over type-1 FLCs. We will also present different techniques to avoid the computational overheads and thus enabling the type-2 FLCs to produce a good real time response. Furthermore, we will present various successful real world applications of type-2 FLCs. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.