FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

3-D Fuzzy Logic Controller for Spatially Distributed Dynamic Systems: a Tutorial
Xian-xia Zhang, Ye Jiang, and Han-xiong Li, Senior Member, IEEE
solar power plan, etc. Such process or system is usually called spatially distributed dynamic system, since its states, controls, and outputs depend on the spatial position as well as the time [2]. To control such system, it usually involves spatially distributed sensors and control sources. Moreover, the control goal is usually to track a spatially distributed profile. It is completely different to the traditional lumped system, which ignores the spatial characteristics. Take for example a problem of reheating a steel slab [2] shown in Fig. 1. The steel slab is reheated by thermal radiation for rolling in a furnace. For proper rolling characteristics, it is necessary for the slab to have a specified temperature distribution along z coordinates. Thus, our problem is to control the heat flux to the surface of the slab in such a way as to approach that specified temperature distribution.

AbstractThree-dimensional fuzzy logic controller (3-D FLC) is a new fuzzy logic controller for spatially distributed dynamic systems. The goal of this tutorial is to wipe of the magic behind the FLC. This tutorial focuses on building an intuition for how and why 3-D FLC works. Additionally, recent development on 3-D FLC is presented. The hope is that by addressing both aspects, readers of all levels will be able to gain a better understanding of 3-D FLC as well as the when, the how and the why of applying the techniques.

I. INTRODUCTION

hree-dimensional fuzzy logic control (3-D FLC) [1] is a novel fuzzy control method developed for spatially distributed dynamic systems. 3-D FLC uses a new fuzzy set three-dimensional (3-D) fuzzy set, which is composed of the traditional two-dimensional fuzzy set and a third dimension for the spatial information, and carries out a 3-D inference engine. Therefore, it has the inherent capability to express and deal with spatial information. Through emulating the behaviors that human operators or experts control the spatially-distributed field from the point of view of overall space domain, satisfactory nonlinear controller can be developed. Moreover, the design of 3-D FLC doesnt require accurate mathematical models of the systems. Thereby, 3-D FLC has a great potential to a wide range of engineering applications for spatially-distributed processes. The goal of this tutorial is to provide both an intuitive feel for 3-D FLC, and a thorough discussion of this topic. We begin with a simple example and provide an intuitive explanation of the goal of 3-D FLC. Then, we will see how and why 3-D FLC works. This understanding will lead us to a prescription for how to apply 3-D FLC in the real world. We will also give some recently developed results of 3-D FLC such as mathematical explanation of its structure, stability issue, and its extension to multiple control sources. II. BACKGROUND

Fig. 1 Radiant heating of a steel slab

Most of physical processes or systems have the nature of spatial distribution. Examples can be given from civil life to industrial process, e.g. the temperature regulation in a building, chemical reactor, semiconductor manufacturing,
Manuscript received February 1, 2009. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China under Grant 60804033. Xian-xia Zhang and Ye Jiang are with Shanghai Key Laboratory of Power Station Automation Technology, School of Mechatronics and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. (email: xianxia_zh@shu.edu.cn) Han-xiong Li is with Department of MEEM, City University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong, China. (email: mehxli@cityu.edu.hk)
978-1-4244-3597-5/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 854

This is a standard problem in physics where the temperature along the z coordinates varies with time t . In other words, the underlying dynamics of the steel slab can be expressed as a function of z and t . Mathematically, it can be represented by partial differential equations. For such system, if we choose model-based control method, then we will make more efforts to build an accurate model before designing the controller. Therefore, we prefer to concentrate on model-free method, such as FLC, which can directly employ experts control knowledge and experience. However, the traditional fuzzy set only has two dimensions, both of which cannot express spatial information. Based on the fuzzy set, the traditional FLC loses the capability to handle spatial information and then limits its application for spatially-distributed systems. Thus, we will seek a new fuzzy set and a new fuzzy control strategy to deal with the spatial information. 3-D FLC is such a fuzzy logic controller that it can express spatial information via using a new fuzzy set called as 3-D fuzzy set and carry out a 3-D fuzzy control strategy to handle spatial information. In the following section, we will have a good understanding of its working principle.

FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

III. FUNDAMENTALS OF 3-D FLC The goal of 3-D FLC is to control a spatially distributed dynamic system via utilizing humans control knowledge and experience. 3-D fuzzy set and 3-D fuzzy control strategy are two important concepts. With a good understanding of them, we can easily penetrate the structure and design of 3-D FLC. A. 3-D fuzzy set A 3-D fuzzy set A defined on the universe of discourse X for primary variable x and the universe of discourse Z for spatial variable z is characterized by a membership function (MF) A ( x, z ) which takes on values in the interval

space domain, as shown in Fig. 3. All the effective measurement from the space will be taken as one input variable, which is called spatial input variable since it contains spatial information. Using the 3-D fuzzy set, spatial information is able to easily embed into fuzzy set and then is implicated in a 3-D rule base. For example, if temperature error and error change from the entire space domain are taken as the spatial inputs, then the 3-D fuzzy control strategy is able to be realized by the following rule base R l : If e( z ) is E l and r ( z ) is F l Then u is K l (1) where e( z ) and r ( z ) denote the temperature error and error change from the entire space domain respectively, E l and F l denote 3-D fuzzy sets, K l is the traditional fuzzy set for control action u , l = 1, , M , M denote the number of rules. From Fig. 3, we can find that 3-D fuzzy control strategy aims to manipulate the overall behavior of the space domain.

[0, 1]. The 3-D fuzzy set A in X Z may be represented as a set of ordered pairs of the generic elements ( x, z ) and its grade of MF: A = {(( x, z ), A ( x, z )) x X , z Z } , 0 A ( x, z ) 1 . When

commonly written as A = Z X A ( x, z ) /( x, z ) .

X and Z are continuous, A is commonly written as A = A ( x, z ) /( x, z ) . When X and Z are discrete, A is

Z X

For example, the temperature in a space domain can be viewed as high or low. We can find the MF description in Fig. 2, where high temperature in the entire space domain with a MF expression is described for clearness. Assumed that we use a slice vertical to cut the 3-D MF in the z coordinate, we can find the cross section is a traditional fuzzy set. In that sense, the 3-D fuzzy set can be regarded as the assembly of infinite (in continuous space domain) or finite (in discrete space domain) traditional fuzzy sets, thus, the design method for traditional fuzzy sets may be also applied to the 3-D fuzzy set. Particularly, in practical application finite point sensors are usually used for the measurement. The space dimension in the 3-D fuzzy set is usually discrete and composed of those effect measurement points.

Fig. 3 3-D fuzzy control strategy Fig. 2 3-D fuzzy set

3-D fuzzy set is the extension of the traditional fuzzy set by adding a space dimension to express spatial information. If the space dimension is wiped off, 3-D fuzzy set will be directly degenerated to a traditional fuzzy set. 3-D fuzzy set increases the capability of traditional fuzzy set to express the spatial information.

B. 3-D fuzzy control strategy On the basis of the 3-D fuzzy set, 3-D fuzzy control strategy emulates humans intuition and knowledge to control a spatially distributed domain from the point of view of entire
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C. Structure of 3-D FLC 3-D FLC has a similar basic structure to the traditional FLC as shown in Fig.4. It consists of fuzzification, rule inference, and defuzzification. Due to its spatial nature, the first two parts involve inherent 3-D feature. In that sense, fuzzification and rule inference can be called as 3-D fuzzification and 3-D rule inference. In particular, 3-D rule inference is composed of three parts: spatial information fusion, dimension reduction, and traditional inference. Its purpose is to process spatial information and to realize two main functions: one is for overall behavior capture from spatial domain (realized by spatial information fusion and dimension reduction) and the other is for traditional fuzzy inference (realized by traditional

FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

inference). In detail, the spatial information fusion operation is to fuse information at each spatial point and ultimately form a spatial membership distribution for each fired 3-D rule, the dimension reduction operation is to compress the 3-D spatial distribution information into 2-D information for each fired rule, and the traditional inference is to execute the traditional inference operation and transform the 2-D fuzzy information into traditional fuzzy output.

In 3-D rule inference, min and max are used for the t-norm and t-conorm fuzzy operation in spatial information fusion respectively, weighted aggregation approach is used for the dimension reduction, and min is used for the t-norm in the traditional inference. The defuzzification is chosen as Center-of sets type. In detail, we give the computation formula according to the above design. 3-D fuzzification Z = {z1 , , z p } , e( zi ) = ei E and r ( zi ) = ri R

denote the inputs from the sensing location z = zi , E and R denote universe of discourse. CEz = zZ e ( z )E Ez (e( z ), z ) /(e( z ), z ) (3) CRz = zZ r ( z )R Rz (r ( z ), z ) /(r ( z ), z )
Fig. 4 Structure of 3-D FLC

where Ez (e( z ), z ) = 1 , Rz (r ( z ), z ) = 1 ,when e( z ) = e( zi ) ,

For example, as for the heating system in section II, we design a 3-D FLC and describe the computation procedure of each part. Firstly, select the detailed component or computation unit for each part. 3-D fuzzification has two categories: singleton and non-singleton, which are the extensions of traditional fuzzification by adding the space dimension. Here, for simplicity and convenience, we choose singleton 3-D fuzzification. 3-D MF is more complex than 2-D MF. To simplify the design of 3-D MF, 3-D MF can be viewed as the spatial assembly of 2-D MFs, thus, the shapes of 2-D MFs will determine the shape of 3-D MF. For instance, if 2-D MF at each spatial point is selected as triangular MF, then the resultant 3-D MF is a spatial triangular MF. Here, we choose spatial triangular MF for spatial inputs e( z ) and r ( z ) .
3-D rule base is greatly simpler than the traditional multivariable rule base. 3-D rule base represents 3-D fuzzy control strategy. Here, for simplicity and convenience, we choose linear rule base, whose rule can be expressed as R(il , jl ) : If e( z ) is Ai and r ( z) is B j Then u is V f (i , j ) (2)
l l l l

r ( z ) = r ( zi ) ,and z = zi ( 1,

, p ); Ez (e( z ), z ) = 0 ,

Rz (r ( z ), z ) = 0 , when e( z ) e( zi ) , r ( z ) r ( zi ) ,and z zi .
Combining the two fuzzifications, we have C X = zZ e ( z )E r ( z )R C (e( z ), r ( z ), z ) /(e( z ), r ( z ), z )
X

= zZ e ( z )E r ( z )R Ez (e( z ), z ) Rz (r ( z ), z ) /(e( z ), r ( z ), z )

(4)

where is t-norm operation.

3-D rule inference Using the rule (2), the l th fired rule can formulate the following fuzzy relation R l : Al B l V l l = 1, 2, , N (5) where N denotes the number of fired rules; for simplicity,

R l , Al , B l , and V l represent R (il , jl ) , Ail , B jl , and V f (il , jl )

in (2) respectively. i) Spatial information fusion Mathematically, it is realized by an extended sup-star composition operation on the input set and the antecedent set and results in a spatial fuzzy set W l W l = C X ( Al B l ) (6) The MF of W l is given as W l ( z ) = C ( Al B l ) (e( z ), r ( z ), z )
X

where Ail and B jl are 3-D fuzzy sets, f (il , jl ) is a linear function of il and jl , V f (il , jl ) is 2-D singleton fuzzy set,

= supe ( z )E , r ( z )R [ C X (e( z ), r ( z ), z ) Al B l (e( z ), r ( z ), z )] = {supe ( z )E [ Ez (e( z ), z ) Al (e( z ), z )]} {sup r ( z )R [ Rz (r ( z ), z ) B l (r ( z ), z )]}

il and jl are integer, representing the partition of 3-D fuzzy set on its domain. For simplicity, let f (il , jl ) = (il + jl ) H , H is
the center-center distance of adjacent fuzzy set , then V f (il , jl ) is nonzero only at (il + jl ) H . Let us see an example. Suppose that there are five identical input 3-D fuzzy sets for e( z ) and

(7)

r ( z ) : negative medium (nm), negative small (ns), zero (z), positive small (ps), and positive medium (pz). They are represented as {A2 , A1 , A0 , A1 , A2 } and

Since singleton fuzzification and min t-norm are used, (7) can be written as zl 1 = T ( el1 , rl1 ) (8) l = T ( l , l ) ep rp zp
l l where eI and rI are the membership grades of the inputs

{B2 , B1 , B0 , B1 , B2 } . Then, output fuzzy sets are represented

as {V4 ,V3 ,V2 ,V1 ,V0 ,V1 ,V2 ,V3 ,V4 } .

eI and rI at the sensing location z = zI with respect to the

antecedent sets of the l th fired rule; T (, ) is t-norm, min is chosen as the t-norm here.
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FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

ii) Dimension reduction The dimension reduction operation is realized by using a weighted aggregation approach for the compression of spatial information, assumed that the weights at the same sensing location for all fired rules are same and have a linear relationship with the spatial membership grades at that sensing location. In this operation, let I ( I = 1, , p ) denote the weight of the spatial membership grade at the sensing location z = zI , where I and

(10) where: sI = eI + rI = keI eI + kdI rI keI and kdI represent the scaling gains of actual error eI and rI respectively.

1 = 1 (1 + 21 ) + 2 (1 + 2 2 ) +

+ p (1 + 2 p )

p I =1

I > 0 . Then, the spatial

information at each fired rule is compressed by the weighted aggregation operation, which results in a firing strength for each fired rule as follows 1 = 1 11 + 2 12 + + p 1 z z zp R l l l (9) Rl = 1 z1 + 2 z 2 + + p zp N N = 1 zN + 2 zN2 + + p zp 1 R where l denotes the firing strength of the l th fired rule R .
R
l

k I = iI + jI + 1 I = 1, , p c is the center-center distance of adjacent triangular fuzzy set. iI and jI are integers, with ( iI c , jI c ) representing the location coordinates of inference cell Q(iI , jI ) where the scaled input pair eI , rI from the sensing location z = zI appears in the rule base plane (shown in Fig. 5). I is a membership grade. Its value varies in different sub-region where the scaled input pair ( eI , rI ) falls into the inference cell Q(iI , jI ) in the rule base.

iii) Traditional inference The Mamdani implication is employed for the l th fired rule as follows i , j (u ) = T ( l , V f ( i , j ) (u )) u U u
l l R
l l

Due to singleton fuzzy sets designed for the output variable, (9) becomes il , jl (u ) = T ( Rl ,1) = Rl for u = (il + jl ) H il , jl (u ) = T ( Rl , 0) = 0 for u U u with u (il + jl ) H
Defuzzification Finally, after a center-of-sets for defuzzification, a crisp out is given by u = [(i1 + j1 ) H 1 + + (iN + jN ) H N ] ( 1 + + N )
R R R R

Generally speaking, once MF and rule base are designed, the 3-D FLC is determined. To reduce the complexity to tune the controller, we can add scaling factors to the inputs and output. Many cases have proved that once MF and rule base are properly designed, satisfactory control performance could be achieved by only tuning scaling factors. IV. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON 3-D FLC Since the first journal paper [1] about 3-D FLC was published, much research has been carried out. At present, some results of 3-D FLC have been achieved. In this section, we will present some important results. A. Mathematical explanation of its spatial structure Using the method of rule base decomposition [3], an analytically mathematical expression of 3-D FLC designed in section II can be derived as follows [4] u = H (1 s1 + + p s ) / c + 2 H (1k1 1 + p + pkp p )
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Fig. 5 Decomposing rule base into many inference cells

The 3-D FLC presents two different structures as follows. 1) Sliding mode structure The final output of a PD-type 3-D FLC is given by U = ku u = ku H ( s Kc ) ( c) + ku H (11) = ku H sat( s ( c)) + ueq

where: s = 1 s1 + 2 s2 + sI = sI k I c K = 1k1 + 2 k2 +

+ p s p + p kp + p k p (1 + 2 p )

= 1k1 (1 + 2 1 ) + = 1 +

+ p

s = s Kc is a switching function. ueq = ku H is an equivalent control term.

ku is the scaling factor of output.

FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

sgn( s ) s c sat( s ( c)) = , sat( s ( c)) is actually s c s ( c)

the continuous approximation of the function sgn( s ) by introducing a boundary layer. The 3-D FLC presents a global sliding mode structure [4] over the space domain, as shown in Fig. 6, in which ueq plays an equivalent control term and ku H sat( s ( c)) plays a switching control term. At each sensing location z = zi ( i = 1,
, p ), there is a local sliding surface si = ki c , where

controller ( H I (eI + rI ) / c ). In the entire space domain, multiple traditional FLCs aggregated by spatially-coupling parameters I and I ( I = 1, , p ) constitute 3-D FLC.

si = ki c is called a pseudo sliding surface when ki 0 , and a real sliding surface when ki = 0 . Through the aggregation of all the local sliding surfaces over the space domain, a global sliding surface s = Kc is formulated, where s = Kc is a pseudo sliding surface when K 0 and a real one when K =0.
Fig. 7 Spatial equivalent structure of 3-D FLC

B. Stability issue System stability is considered from two different points of view: Lyapunov stability and BIBO stability. The spatially-distributed nonlinear system is represented by . Assumed that enough sensors deployed in the space domain are used to extract the spatial information of the spatially-distributed nonlinear system , the input-output nonlinear dynamic relationship of at finite spatial points where sensors are located can be represented by . The input-output relation of the system can be expressed approximately in terms of ordinary differential equations as follows. ( n) y1 = f1 ( y , d1 ) + b1U (13) (n) y p = f p ( y , d p ) + bpU where yi = y ( zi , t ) denotes the output measurement value at the sensing location z = zi ; y denotes a vector associated with

Fig. 6 Sliding mode structure of 3-D FLC

{ y , y ..., y }
1 2

; d i denotes the disturbance (e.g.

2) Spatial aggregation of multiple traditional FLCs (10) can be transformed into the following form
I u = I =1 ( I Hk I + H I (eI + rI ) / c) = I =1 uFLC (12) p p

unmeasured spatial information) to yi ; f i ( y , d i ) denotes unknown function of y and d i ; p denotes the number of spatial points; bi indicates the strength of the source U acting on spatial point z = zi , bi 0 , i = 1, , p . 1) Lyapunov stability [4] For the nonlinear system (13) with n = 2 , two assumptions are posed:

where: I uFLC = I Hk I + H I (eI + rI ) / c eI = eI (iI + 0.5)c rI = rI ( jI + 0.5)c

I = I (1 + 2 I ) (1 (1 + 21 ) + I = I [1 (1 + 21 ) +

+ p (1 + 2 p ))

Assumption 1 The upper bound of ri kei / kdi + ydi f i Fi ( i = 1,

, p , Fi > 0 ) exists.

+ p (1 + 2 p )]

Assumption 2 The upper bound of ueq exists and satisfies Fi + bi ueq < Fi ( Fi > 0 ). The control given by (10) is employed. If Assumption 1 and 2 hold, the scaling factors of the error and error in change satisfy the inequation (14), and the parameters of 3-D fuzzy logic controller in (10) satisfy the equation (15), then the
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3-D FLC can be regarded as a spatial equivalent structure [5][6] shown in Fig. 7. At each sensing location z = zI , one traditional FLC works, which behaves like a global two-dimensional multilevel ( I Hk I ) relay plus a local PI/PD

FUZZ-IEEE 2009, Korea, August 20-24, 2009

global stability of the closed-loop fuzzy control system is guaranteed. ke1 < L e1 , , kep < L e p max max (14) kd 1 < L r1 max , , kdp < L rp max

REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] H.X. Li, X.X. Zhang, and S.Y. Li, A Three-dimensional Fuzzy Control Methodology for a Class of Distributed Parameter System, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst, vol.15, no.3, pp. 470-481, 2007. W.H. Ray, Advanced process control. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981 H. Ying, Fuzzy Control and Modeling: Analytical Foundations and Applications. New York: IEEE Press, 2000. X.X. Zhang, H.X. Li, and S.Y. Li, Analytical Study and Stability Design of Three-Dimensional Fuzzy Logic Controller for Spatially Distributed Dynamic Systems, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst, vol.16, no.6, pp. 1613-1625, 2008. X.X. Zhang, S.Y. Li, and H.X. Li, Structure Analysis of Three-dimensional Fuzzy Two-term Controller and BIBO Stability of its Control System, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 2nd revised, 2008. X.X. Zhang, Design and Analysis of 3-Domain Fuzzy Logic Controller for Spatially Distributed Systems, PhD dissertation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 2008. X.X. Zhang, S.Y. Li, and H.X. Li, Novel fuzzy control for spatially distributed systems based on decomposition and coordination strategy, Control and Decision (in Chinese), vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 709-713, 2008.

ku b1 H = Fmax sgn( s1 )sgn( s) + 1 (15) k b H = F sgn( s )sgn( s) + max p p u p where > 0 , L = Nc ( 2 N + 1 denotes the number of fuzzy sets), ei
max i

[5]

and ri

max

denote the maximum of the absolute

value of e and ri respectively. 2) BIBO stability [5] [6] If the system has a bounded norm (gain) < and the parameters of the 3-D FLC c satisfy

[6] [7]

ku Hkmaxmax p c < 1
where:

(16)

kmax = max{ke1 + kd 1 ,

, kep + kdp }

max = max{1, , } p
I = I (1 + 2 +
+ p ) and I > 0 ( I = 1, ,p)
then the nonlinear 3-D fuzzy control system is to be globally BIBO stable. C. Extension to multiple control sources The spatially distributed system with multiple control sources shows more complex spatial distribution than the one with one control source. For such system, we can consider to employ advanced control strategy. In most of spatially distributed systems, sources usually have local influence on the space domain. Using this spatial feature, the system with multiple control sources can be decomposed into multiple subsystems with one control source. Consequently, the aforementioned 3-D FLC can be employed as the controller for each subsystem. Since interaction exists among subsystems and it decreases as the distance of subsystems increase, suitable coordination actions should be added. Under this strategy, a local coordination type 3-D FLC [6] [7] is proposed. For each subsystem, one local coordination type 3-D FLC is used. Its output is composed of two parts: main output and coordinated output. The main output is equivalent to the output of a standard 3-D FLC, and the coordinated output is the influence output from spatially adjacent subsystems. V. CONCLUSIONS In this tutorial, basic working principle of 3-D FLC is provided. 3-D fuzzy set and 3-D fuzzy control strategy are two very important concepts to understand 3-D FLC. Through a simple example, a detailed design and computation procedure of 3-D FLC is given. Recent development on 3-D FLC is described. Some important results including mathematical explanation of its structure, stability issue, and its extension to multiple control sources are given.
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