NOTES ON IMPLEMENTING FUZZY-SETS IN PROLOG

Due to its unique characteristics, Prolog requires special techniques for implementing ordinary as well as fuzzy sets. This article presents a comparative overview of various strategies of representing and mani pulating fuzzy sets in Prolog. There are two major approaches to imple ment fuzzy sets in Prolog. One is to incorporate fuzzy representations and operations on top of an existing Prolog. The second way is to dev elop a new extended Prolog language. This article discusses various me thods based primarily on the first approach. The choice of a method de pends on many factors, such as whether a database for fuzzy sets alrea dy exists, the type of applications, the type of fuzzy set operations performed, whether an implicit description of the elements is possible , the size of the database, and the required computation time. The fol lowing methods are discussed in this article: explicit description (fi nite), using lists; explicit description (finite), using a fact for ev ery element; implicit description (finite, infinite); and other method s and extensions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.