Soft computing paradigms for hybrid fuzzy controllers: experiments and applications

Neural networks (NN), genetic algorithms (GA), and genetic programs (GP) are often augmented with fuzzy logic-based schemes to enhance artificial intelligence of a given system. Such hybrid combinations are expected to exhibit added intelligence, adaptation, and learning ability. In the paper, implementation of three hybrid fuzzy controllers are discussed and verified by experimental results. These hybrid controllers consist of a hierarchical NN-fuzzy controller applied to a direct drive motor, a GA-fuzzy hierarchical controller applied to a flexible robot link, and a GP-fuzzy behavior-based controller applied to a mobile robot navigation task. It is experimentally shown that all three architectures are capable of significantly improving the system response