LINGUISTIC SELF-ORGANIZING PROCESS CONTROLLER

A heuristic controller for dynamic processes is presented in this paper whose control policy is able to develop and improve automatically. The controller's heuristics take the form of a set of linguistic decision rules which are expressed quantitatively and manipulated by using the theory of fuzzy sets. A series of experiments are described which show that the controller can be applied to a wide range of different processes which can be multivariable and also nonlinear and demonstrate the controller's robustness. This form of control can therefore find an application in those complex systems which have been too difficult to control or which in the past have had to rely on the experience of a human operator. © 1979.