Applying visual programming for fuzzy controller modeling

Understanding of soft computing methodology often requires grasping abstract concepts or imagining complex interactions of large models over long computing cycles. But this can be difficult for students with weak background in mathematics, especially in the early stages of soft computing education. This paper introduces applying a visual programming paradigm as a tool for educational introduction to soft computing methods. For the visual programming paradigm, IntelligentPad proposed by Y.Tanaka is used. IntelligentPad defines a visual appearance to objects or classes, and allows users to operate and link different objects together using the mouse. This paper reports on using IntelligentPad to teach the basic mechanism of fuzzy control systems. The proposed method was applied to 3rd year college students to verify the validity of the proposed teaching method.