A class of hierarchical fuzzy systems with constraints on the fuzzy rules

This paper presents a class of hierarchical fuzzy systems where previous layer outputs are used not in IF-parts, but only in THEN-parts of the fuzzy rules of the current layer. The proposed scheme is shown to be a universal approximator to any real continuous function on a compact set if complete fuzzy sets are used in the IF-parts of the fuzzy rules with singleton fuzzifier and center average defuzzifier. From the example of ball-and-beam control system simulation, it is demonstrated that the proposed scheme approximates with high accuracy a model nonlinear controller with fewer fuzzy rules than a centralized fuzzy system, and its control performance is comparable to that of a nonlinear controller.