An Introduction to Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy Sets [Paperback]

This book is an excellent starting point for any curriculum in fuzzy systems fields such as computer science, mathematics, business/economics and engineering. It covers the basics leading to: fuzzy clustering, fuzzy pattern recognition, fuzzy database, fuzzy image processing, soft computing, fuzzy applications in operations research, fuzzy decision making, fuzzy rule based systems, fuzzy systems modeling, fuzzy mathematics. It is not a book designed for researchers - it is where you really learn the basics needed for any of the above-mentioned applications. It includes many figures and problem sets at the end of sections.This book is intended to be an undergraduate introduction to the theory of fuzzy sets. We envision, sometime in the future, a curriculum in fuzzy sys? tems theory, which could be in computer /information sciences, mathematics, engineering or economics (business, finance), with this book as the starting point. It is not a book for researchers but a book for beginners where you learn the basics. This course would be analogous to a pre-calculus course where a student studies algebra, functions and trigonometry in preparation for more advanced courses. Chapters 3 through 11 are on fuzzy algebra, fuzzy functions, fuzzy trigonometry, fuzzy geometry, and solving fuzzy equations. However, after this course the student doesn't go on to calculus but to more specialized courses in fuzzy systems theory like fuzzy clustering, fuzzy pattern recogni? tion, fuzzy database, fuzzy image processing and computer vision, robotics, intelligent agents, soft computing, fuzzy rule based systems (control, expert systems), fuzzy decision making, applications to operations research, fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy systems modeling, etc. Therefore, very little of most of these topics are included in this book. There are many new topics included in this book. Let us point out some of them here: (1) mixed fuzzy logic (Section 3.5); (2) three methods of solving fuzzy equation/problems lÓç