Definition of Fuzzy Logic
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Javier Navarro, in May. 2019
The adjective diffuse comes from the Latin diffussus, which means vague, imprecise and unclear. On the other hand, the term logic comes from the Greek logiké, which derives from logos and is equivalent to reason, argument or idea. The logic is the discipline Philosophical that studies the truth or falsity of the arguments.
The name fuzzy logic comes from the English fuzzy logic and was coined in the 1960s by the Iranian mathematician and computer scientist Lotfi A. Zadeh. It is not a purely theoretical formulation, since nowadays some technologies are programmed with flexible or blurred criteria and, at the same time, logical.
What does it consist of?
Logic as a philosophical discipline dates back to Aristotle, who established the fundamental principles and rules of it. In this kind of reasoning there are two possible truth values, since a statement is either true or false. It is worth remembering that in everyday life we handle the conventional criteria of traditional logic.
In fuzzy logic a new proposal is presented: instead of the classic option that distinguishes what true of false, it is possible that a statement is partially true or partially false.
An example of fuzzy set theory
If we want to establish a classification of tall and short people, we can use an objective reference (for example, 1.70 cm would be the border that differentiates some people from others). Thus, those who exceed this height will be included in the set of highs and those who will not be part of the set of lows. In this focus an individual belongs to one class or another.
In fuzzy logic there is another type of strategy: instead of establishing a differentiating threshold, a more flexible criterion is introduced. Thus, following the example of height, all individuals would belong in some way to the set of short and tall at the same time.
If group membership is established with values of 0 and 1, this means that 0 equals low membership and 1 implies high membership. Thus, the tallest person in a group (for example, 1.98 cm) would have a very limited membership in the group of short ones. In short, the same individual can belong to two different classes. This ambivalence does not exist in the classical formulation of sets.
Different areas of knowledge have incorporated patterns of fuzzy logic
In the experience human life of daily life we handle blurred or unclear criteria, since many circumstances and facts have a ambiguous dimension (for example, the clothes are not dry or wet, but may also be a little dry or a little wet). The principles of fuzzy logic have been applied to different areas and activities: artificial intelligence, computing or automation of tasks. It is interesting to note that some washing machines with Japanese technology use one wash cycle or another depending on the size of the laundry and the amount of dirt on it.
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