Super-Exponential Convergence of the Karnik-Mendel Algorithms Used for Type-reduction in Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Systems

Computing the centroid of an interval T2 FS is an important operation in a type-2 fuzzy logic system (where it is called type-reduction), but it is also a potentially time-consuming operation. The Karnik-Mendel (KM) iterative algorithms are widely used for doing this. In this paper we prove that these algorithms converge monotonically and super-exponentially fast. Both properties are highly desirable for iterative algorithms and explain why in practice the KM algorithms have been observed to converge very fast, thereby making them very practical to use.