Improved inference for Takagi-Sugeno models

Some undesirable properties of the standard Takagi-Sugeno (TS) inference method are discussed in relation to an analysis of the TS model and its approximation accuracy. A new inference method based on a smoothing maximum function is proposed. This method guarantees smoothness of the model output to a desired degree, boundedness of the output gradient at each point by the local gradients of the rule consequences and also improves the accuracy of the TS model, as demonstrated in the given numerical examples.