Miha Mraz

The fuzzy logic approach to the car number plate locating problem

Fuzzy logic is applied to the problem of locating the number plate in digital images of cars. The intention of the paper is to show the capability of fuzzy logic in this field. Our aim was to locate the number plate by use of intuitive rules and experience. By extending or changing the rules the system can easily be adapted to locate other patterns. The results obtained by the system are very good and reliable.

The ternary quantum-dot cell and ternary logic

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCAs) are increasingly becoming one of the most promising candidates for the alternative processing platform of the future. Since their advent in the early 1990s the required technological processes, as well as the QCA structures that implement the basic and functionally complete set of binary logic functions, have been developed. This paper, however, presents an extension of the (standard) binary quantum-dot cell that is focused on the enrichment of the cells processing capabilities. It is shown that the newly introduced ternary quantum-dot cell can be used to represent three logic values and that only minor modifications of the corresponding binary QCA structures are required to implement the functionally complete set of Łukasiewicz ternary logic functions.

Layout design of manufacturable quantum-dot cellular automata

Quantum-dot cellular automaton (QCA) is an emergent technology that is not hindered by quantum effects that limit the scaling of CMOS technology, but instead employs them to perform computation. However, this brings its own impediments, such as the influence of the thermodynamic effects. Beside that, QCA has to be coupled with CMOS circuitry of different size features to enable clocking. We discussed all these facts and devised a floorplan which would facilitate manufacturability. Based on it we developed the process of QCA layout design and defined the design rules that must be considered in order to ensure correct operation. These instructions enable the automatization of designing a QCA circuit layout.

Fuzzy cellular automata: from theory to applications

In this paper we present a fuzzified cellular automata structure called fuzzy cellular automata. We begin our paper with a fuzzified entity called fuzzy automaton, then we present basics of cellular automata and finally we define fuzzy cellular automata. At the end we present some simulation results from the field of fire spread in homogeneous nature environment.

Decomposition of a complex fuzzy controller for the truck-and-trailer reverse parking problem

The use of fuzzy logic has, in the last twenty years, become standard practice in the field of control. The reason lies in the fuzzy logics ability to relatively quickly transfer uncertain experience and knowledge about the observed objects behaviour into the process of decision making. Nevertheless, one of the biggest problems that arises when using a fuzzy approach is the large number of fuzzy rules that have to be processed in order to produce one decision (i.e. one control output). The number of rules in a fuzzy controller primarily originates from the number of input variables that are entering the decision process and one possible solution for decreasing it is to use the method of decomposition. Its main goal is to implement the equivalent control functionality with a hierarchy of simpler fuzzy controllers. Their main characteristic is a lower number of input variables, which as a consequence leads to a smaller number of fuzzy rules. In our paper we apply the decomposition approach to the classical complex control case of the Truck-and-Trailer (T&T) reverse parking control problem. In such cases the implementation of control using only one fuzzy controller is very complex and the existing solutions, in some details, even deviate from the classical fuzzy approach. Our solution is, on the other hand, based only on the uncertain knowledge about the behaviour of the T&T driver and the results achieved are even better than those achieved by using the existing solutions.

T-type fuzzy memory cells

Abstract The paper deals with design problems of trigger (T)-type fuzzy memory cell. The authors suggest six types of T cell, which can be used in temporal fuzzy logic: memory item of 1 fuzzy bit information, converter from fuzzy date to fuzzy time interval, cell of fuzzy register, item of fuzzy memory, fuzzy delay circuit and so on. Generally speaking, in addition to Hirota and Ozawas fuzzy JK flip-flop, fuzzy T memory cells, which introduce time (memory) action into fuzzy inference machines, are observed.

Adiabatic pipelining: a key to ternary computing with quantum dots.

The quantum-dot cellular automaton (QCA), a processing platform based on interacting quantum dots, was introduced by Lent in the mid-1990s. What followed was an exhilarating period with the development of the line, the functionally complete set of logic functions, as well as more complex processing structures, however all in the realm of binary logic. Regardless of these achievements, it has to be acknowledged that the use of binary logic is in computing systems mainly the end result of the technological limitations, which the designers had to cope with in the early days of their design. The first advancement of QCAs to multi-valued (ternary) processing was performed by Lebar Bajec et al, with the argument that processing platforms of the future should not disregard the clear advantages of multi-valued logic. Some of the elementary ternary QCAs, necessary for the construction of more complex processing entities, however, lead to a remarkable increase in size when compared to their binary counterparts. This somewhat negates the advantages gained by entering the ternary computing domain. As it turned out, even the binary QCA had its initial hiccups, which have been solved by the introduction of adiabatic switching and the application of adiabatic pipeline approaches. We present here a study that introduces adiabatic switching into the ternary QCA and employs the adiabatic pipeline approach to successfully solve the issues of elementary ternary QCAs. What is more, the ternary QCAs presented here are sizewise comparable to binary QCAs. This in our view might serve towards their faster adoption.

The design of intelligent control of a kitchen refrigerator

The article provides an example of how to design an “intelligent” digital control for maintaining the temperature at a predefined level in a common kitchen refrigerator. The control works on the basis of modeling a thermostatic appliance and the use of fuzzy logic. Thermostatically simulated and fuzzy controlled model are presented successively. The latter is set-up on the basis of the Sugeno’s type of fuzzy rules and the Jang’s procedure of learning. MATLAB, SIMULINK and Fuzzy Logic TOOLBOX (FLT) are the programming environments used for realization of the model. The principal aim in designing the control is to assure the fastest and best transition possible from an analogue to digital control of the refrigerating appliance, which represents the basis of a functional expansion demanded by the present market.

The computational beauty of flocking: boids revisited

Artificial-life research was founded in the mid-1980s. It promotes the idea of the bottom-up research approach, where only the basic units of a situation and their local interaction are modelled, and then the system is left to evolve. However, the notable progress of the processing power of personal computers, evident in the last two decades, has had little influence on the ways the basic units (artificial animals or animats) are constructed. This impacts largely on the applicability of the methods in other research fields. Our field of choice is the modelling of bird flocks. This area was at its peak in the late 1980s when Craig W. Reynolds presented the first and most influential model – the boids. In spite of his many following works no formal definition has ever been presented. This might be the reason why a second generation of flocking models is still awaited. In this article we make a step forward, all in view of allowing for the development of the second-generation models. We present an artificial animal construction framework that has been obtained as a generalization of the existing bird flocking models, but is not limited to them. The article thus presents a formal definition of the framework and gives an example of its use. In the latter the framework is employed to present a formalization of Reynoldss boids.

Solving the ternary QCA logic gate problem by means of adiabatic switching

This paper demonstrates that with the introduction of adiabatic switching one can successfully solve the ternary quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) problem of the basic geometry that implements the AND and OR logic functions. It is shown that in that case the geometry can perform both the binary majority logic function as well as ternary AND and OR logic functions.