FUZZY INFERENCE METHODS AND APPARATUS, SYSTEMS AND APPARATUSES USING SUCH INFERENCE APPARATUS

摘要

A health monitoring (HM) system for complex networked apparatus includes a number of neuro-fuzzy inference (NFI) apparatuses (102) feeding inference results (104) into a data fusion hierarchy (106). At each level in the hierarchy, fuzzy inference is applied to generate a desired output signal by processing selected input signals in accordance with a knowledge base (126) defining fuzzy membership functions and fuzzy inference rules defined in advance. The knowledge base comprises alternative definitions (A, B, C) of membership functions and/or inference rules. The apparatus selects which definition to use according to environmental or other conditions, and predetermined selection criteria. Neuro-fuzzy inference can thus be optimised according to subsets of the full range of operating conditions, leading to a simplification of the real-time inference computation. Further advantage is obtained by combining rules and input membership degrees in the inference engine (122) by vector addition. The vector addition technique can be applied also in a fuzzy controller (600).