FAQ/Frequently Asked Questions

This page collects some of the frequently asked questions about fuzzyTECH and explains
some of the Terminology used on this web server. If you do not find the answer to your
question here, please send us email via our contact form.

What Can Fuzzy Logic Contribute to My Design?

The World is Fuzzy: The flexibility that lies in the words and statements we employ is
widely used in society. In most western societies, the legal system consists of a certain
number of laws, each of which describes a different situation. For example, one law could
express that theft of a car should be punished with two years of prison. Another law could
define diminished responsibility. In one case in court, the judge must decide the exact
number of days in prison for a thief who stole a car while under the influence with a blood
alcohol level of 0.1%, who had a bad childhood, and was left by his spouse the day before.
As a specific law does not exist for each case, the judge has to combine all applicable laws
to derive a fair decision. This is only possible due to the flexibility in the definition of the
words and statements used in each law.

What Hardware Do I Need to Run fuzzyTECH?

In most technical applications, one hardware platform (development computer) is used for
the developing the fuzzy logic system while a different hardware platform (target hardware)
is used to run the fuzzy logic system later. fuzzyTECH's user interface that is all the
graphical components you find explained on the pages of this web server, only runs on a
PC. System requirements: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 98
or Windows 95, IE 5.01 or higher 30 MB disk space, 16 MB RAM.

While the development computer always must be a PC with a MS-Windows operating

system, fuzzyTECH supports a wide range of target hardware platforms: the MCU Editions
generate fuzzy logic systems as assembly code, the IA Editions are delivered with special
fuzzy logic function blocks, and the Professional/Online Editions generate portable C code.
An overview of the different target platforms can be found below.

Which fuzzyTECH Is Best for My Application?

My fuzzy logic solution will run on a The fuzzyTECH Professional Edition as the
PC/Workstation. My application area standard version provides all design tools, fuzzy
is control engineering, sensor signal technologies, and interfaces to other software
processing, or technical data systems.
analysis.
Same as before, but my fuzzy logic The fuzzyTECH Professional Edition generates
solutions will be integrated as your complete fuzzy logic system as highly optimized,
portable C code with other software royalty-free C source code at the push of a button.
on different target hardware
platforms.
I would like to integrate the fuzzy The fuzzyTECH Professional Edition comes with a
logic system with other PC based large number of stand-alone runtime modules for
software other software packages that are provided "ready-to-

My fuzzy logic solutions shall run on
a microcontroller/DSP that is a
member of one of the following
families: ST-6, PIC, 8051, 8096,
80C196, 80C166, TMS-320, 374xx,
HC05, HC08, HC11, HC12, .
My fuzzy logic solutions will run on a The fuzzyTECH Professional Edition supports a
microcontroller that is not a member superset of the functionality of the fuzzyTECH MCU-
of the families listed above.
I want to optimize my fuzzy logic
solution in real-time.
I want to use fuzzy logic in industrial In cooperation with the Klockner-Moeller Corp.,
automation.
My fuzzy logic solution shall run on
a programmable logic controller of
Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Bosch,
Hartmann&Braun, ABB, or on a
Foxboro distributed process control
system.
I want to integrate fuzzyTECH with
other standard software, such as
data bases, spreadsheets, and
programming languages.
I want to integrate fuzzyTECH with
use". These include process automation,
measurement, and simulation software (InTouch,
InControl, Matlab, LabVIEW, WinCC, WinFACT,
DIAdem, Citect, VisSim, ..) and standard software
(Excel, VisualBasic, VisualC++, Access, ..). In
addition, all fuzzyTECH Editions provide the MS-
Windows standard software interfaces.
The fuzzyTECH MCU-XX Editions generate your
complete fuzzy logic system as native assembly code
or use an assembly code library. The code generators
have been designed in close cooperation with the
respective silicon manufacturers. In contrast to the
fuzzyTECH Professional Edition, only fuzzy
technologies that are relevant for embedded control
designs on a special hardware platform are
supported.
XX Editions, but generates C source code that is pre-
optimized for an efficient implementation on 8, 16,
and 32 bit microcontrollers and DSP.
The fuzzyTECH Online Edition, all fuzzyTECH IA-
XX Editions, and some fuzzyTECH MCU-XX
Editions (as RTRCD functionality) support
visualization and optimization of fuzzy logic systems
running on a target hardware in real-time.
INFORM has developed the "fuzzyPLC™" that
integrates conventional control techniques seamlessly
with fuzzy logic.
Inform and these manufacturers of control hardware
have created dedicated fuzzyTECH Editions for these
PLCs.
Any fuzzyTECH Edition integrates with standard
software by various MS-Windows supported links
(DDE, DLL,...). For MS-Excel integration, fuzzyTECH
comes with a fuzzy logic assistant that completely ties
in with Excel and provides seamless integration.
Process simulations can be written in any MS-
Windows based programming language. A serial link
feature also integrates with software running on
different computers or on computer networks. A
programming language interface allows you to
customize fuzzyTECH in many ways using standard
programming languages such as VisualBasic or
Visual C++.
Any fuzzyTECH Edition generates M code at a push
control engineering simulation
software.
of a button that can be used with standard simulation
software packages such as VisSim™ and
Matlab™/SIMULINK™. Also, an interactive interface
is provided free with any Edition of fuzzyTECH that
completely integrates fuzzyTECH-based fuzzy control
blocks within a VisSim simulation. Please call for
specific information!

More detailed information on the different fuzzyTECH products is provided on the

fuzzyTECH Editions Overview page.

Are there any License Fees for the Code generated by fuzzyTECH or for the
Runtime Modules?

No! There are no runtime license fees for any system you generated with fuzzyTECH. You
may use any fuzzyTECH generated C code, assembly code, and the fuzzy logic function
blocks in any way you want. You may also distribute the FTRUN modules with you
solution.

How Can I Learn About Fuzzy Logic Design Methods?

On this web server you find a comprehensive set of MS PowerPoint 97 presentations of

seminars and workshops to teach yourself and others about the industrial application of
fuzzy logic. The fuzzyTECH Demo that you may download from this web server as well
allows you to experiment with pre-manufactured examples of fuzzy logic solutions. Further
background is provided by the fuzzy logic books we have published. Learn from the
experience of recent successful fuzzy logic applications in our Application Papers section.
In addition to these self-teaching tools, Inform offers a wide range of traning events
(seminars, workshops, symposia) that are held periodically and on-site with our clients. For
an updated training schedule, please contact us via our contact form.

How Is fuzzyTECH Supported?

Inform Software Corp. in the U.S., INFORM GmbH in Europe, and Inform/TOYO in Asia
provide hotline support by phone, fax, and e-mail for licensed fuzzyTECH users. INFORM
also provides consulting services and design support on request. INFORM's project teams
have successfully supported numerous fuzzy logic applications worldwide over the last
decade. Please contact INFORM for a quotation.

fuzzyTECH is constantly being improved and expanded on new target hardware platforms
by INFORM's software engineers. New add-on Modules are developed that will support
specific application areas. All licensed users of fuzzyTECH can get the latest release of
their fuzzyTECH Edition as an Update any time. INFORM also offers software
maintenance contracts for all fuzzyTECH Modules and Editions. For an annual fee, the
latest release of fuzzyTECH is automatically sent to users up to two times a year.

Who Is INFORM?

INFORM is a software house and consulting firm in fuzzy logic and intelligent control with
offices worldwide. Please read our company profile.
Terminology

ActiveX see Windows Active X.

DDE Dynamic Data Exchange, a technology that allows two software programs
under MS-Windows to exchange data. fuzzyTECH supports a DDE
interface.
DLL Dynamic Link Library, a file containing functions that can be called by a
program. fuzzyTECH uses DLLs internally to structure its code modules, but
also provides DLLs as interfaces to other software programs, e.g. the
FTRUN.DLL and FTRCU.DLL. The FTRCU.DLL DLL contains functions that
you can use to embed the complete user interface of fuzzyTECH in your
own code or other software packages, and the FTRUN.DLL contains
functions that let you compute any fuzzyTECH generated system.
DoS Degree of Support (in fuzzy rules). Adding an individual weight to each rule
extends the concept of "on/off" rules to a representation where rules
themselves are "fuzzy". This allows for the rule base to be fine tuned during
optimization. Since the mapping of the input of the rules to the output now
itself is fuzzy, this concept is often referred to as a "Fuzzy Associative Map"
(FAM). The tuning parameter is called "Degree of Support".
FAM Fuzzy Associative Map; see DoS.
FTL Fuzzy Technology Language, a file format for fuzzy logic systems supported
by most software and hardware vendors of fuzzy logic solutions. Developed
by Intel Corp. and Inform Software Corp. in 1991, FTL allows for the
exchange of fuzzy logic systems between different software and hardware
tools and platforms. All fuzzyTECH Editions store their projects as FTL files.
FTL is an ASCII description language and can thus be read and edited
using any text editor.
FTR fuzzyTECH Runtime, a file format generated by fuzzyTECH for its runtime
module. A FTR file is a binary data representation of a fuzzy logic system.
Depending on the options used, a FTR file can even contain all the
necessary information for fuzzyTECH to reconstruct an entire FTL file from
it.
FTRCU (fuzzyTech Remote Control Unit), an interface that allows you to tie in the
complete fuzzyTECH development system in other software programs. In
every fuzzyTECH installation from release 5.0 on, this file is located in the
installation directory of fuzzyTECH and can be used by any other program
to "remote control" fuzzyTECH. For example, all three simulations of the
fuzzyTECH 5.0 Demo use this interface to start fuzzyTECH remotely, open
the appropriate fuzzy logic system, and let fuzzyTECH compute the output
values of the fuzzy logic system under simulation.
FTRUN (fuzzyTech RUNtime Module), an interface that only integrates the runtime
kernel of fuzzyTECH with other software programs. FTRUN is available as
16-bit DLL (FTRUN.DLL) and 32-bit DLL (FTRUN32.DLL) available with
release 5.0 of fuzzyTECH. The files are automatically placed in the
/WINDOWS/SYSTEM/ subdirectory by the setup routine of fuzzyTECH.
FTRUN can only open fuzzy logic systems in the *.FTR format. The
 advantages of FTRUN over FTRCU are the fact that it's royalty-free, its
much smaller file size, and the much higher execution speed. FTRUN is
available only with the fuzzyTECH Professional and Online Edition.
Monitoring of fuzzy logic system that are computed by FTRUN is also
possible with the fuzzyTECH Demo.
IPX/SPX The Internetwork Packet Exchange / Synchron Package Exchange protocol
Protocol is a netware protocol that can be used for data exchange via a certain type
of netware (e.g. Novell Netware/Intranetware).
Online The "Online" debugging technique allows for the modification of a running
Debugging fuzzy logic system "on-the-fly". In Online Debug Mode, all editors and
analyzers of fuzzyTECH let you monitor the fuzzy logic inference in real time
and every modification is implemented instantly on the target hardware.
fuzzyTECH communicates bi-directionally with the target system at any time
via a serial cable, a shared network file system (SFS), or another
communication link. The real-time data is transferred from the target
hardware to the graphical editors and analyzers of fuzzyTECH, allowing
complete visualization of the fuzzy logic inference. Any modification to the
fuzzy logic system is transferred from fuzzyTECH to the target hardware
and implemented without halting this system. Remote traces can be
configured and controlled from fuzzyTECH as well.
OLE/OLX Object Linking and Embedding, a technology for embedding one software
system into another, now called ActiveX. The fuzzyTECH runtime module is
available as an OLE module that can be integrated with all other software
packages supporting OLE/OLX/ActiveX.
PLC Programmable Logic Controllers. These controllers are programmable and
have integrated digital and analog I/O modules.They are used in industrial
automation, in an harsh industrial environment.
RTF Rich Text Format, a file format for documents supported by most word
processing software, such as MS-Word, MS-Wordpad (comes with
Windows95), WordPerfect, WordPro, and StarWriter. The documentation
generator of fuzzyTECH uses RTF to output documents.
RTRCD Some fuzzyTECH MCU Editions also provide a limited Online debugging
Debugging functionality, called RTRCD (Real-Time Remote Cross Debugging). RTRCD
lets you modify rules and membership functions on-the-fly and run traces.
SFS Shared File System (SFS). A SFS is a directory that can be accessed by
two software programs. This directory can be located on a PC (i.e.
C:/TEMP) if both programs (e.g. fuzzyTECH and the Runtime Module) run
on the same PC. If fuzzyTECH and the Runtime Module run on different
PCs, this directory must either be located on a network server or on one of
the PCs as a shared directory.
Windows Windows ActiveX is a technology to embed one software system into
ActiveX another. This technology was formerly referred to as OLE/OLX, which
stands for object linking and embedding.