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Fuzzy Logic Is a Way to Deal with Imprecise Concepts Essay

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As I sit down to write this paper, I am also waiting for my laundry to finish. I set the machine to “auto” load size and dumped my clothes in, oblivious to the actual size of the load. The machine can calculate the size of the load for me, and assure that my clothes are washed at the proper temperature for the proper amount of time. This is accomplished through the use of what is referred to as soft computing, pioneered by a man named Lofti Zadeh (Peterson). Lofti Zadeh was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1921. The son of an Iranian journalist and a Russian physician, Zadeh’s early life was spent under the influence of Soviet ideas. In an interview with Betty Blair, Zadeh speaks of how the Soviet schools of his childhood placed great …show more content…

The choice is no longer just zero or one.” Fuzzy logic allows for “fuzzy sets,” which do not rigidly follow a “yes or no” logic when attempting to determine the elements of such a set. Fuzzy sets can include partial elements; elements that may or may not belong to the set depending on other circumstances (Peterson). Because of this flexibility, fuzzy sets are used in soft computing, a process engineers now use in many modern home appliances. Prior to the 1970’s, fuzzy logic had not been put into practical, real-world use. This changed when many Japanese manufacturers began to implement simple fuzzy systems in their household products, leading to the vast amount of items which make use of soft computing today (Zadeh).
To go back to a previous example, my washing machine determines which type of cycle to use based on the weight of the clothing. A “small” load or a “medium” load is not rigidly defined, but the fuzzy logic allows the washing machine to approximate the type of cycle it should use. An amount of clothes on the cusp of both “small” and “medium” could be placed in either category, depending on other variables such as fabric mix and the amount of detergent (“Fuzzy logic”). In this specific example fuzzy logic and soft computing can lead to errors, such as a wash cycle erroneously stopping after the clothes become heavier due to

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