With the use of fuzzy logic techniques, neural computing can be integrated in symbolic reasoning to solve complex real world problems. In fact, artificial neural networks, expert systems, and fuzzy logic systems, in the context of approximate reasoning, share common features and techniques. A model of Fuzzy Connectionist Expert System is introduced, in which an artificial neural network is designed to construct the knowledge base of an expert system from, training examples (this model can also be used for specifications of rules in fuzzy logic control). Two types of weights are associated with the synaptic connections in an AND-OR structure: primary linguistic weights, interpreted as labels of fuzzy sets, and secondary numerical weights. Cell activation is computed through min-max fuzzy equations of the weights. Learning consists in finding the (numerical) weights and the network topology. This feedforward network is described and first illustrated in a biomedical application (medical diagnosis assistance from inflammatory-syndromes/proteins profiles). Then, it is shown how this methodology can be utilized for handwritten pattern recognition (characters play the role of diagnoses): in a fuzzy neuron describing a number for example, the linguistic weights represent fuzzy sets on cross-detecting lines and the numerical weights reflect the importance (or weakness) of connections between cross-detecting lines and characters.

Date Published: 1 October 1991
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1569, Stochastic and Neural Methods in Signal Processing, Image Processing, and Computer Vision, (1 October 1991); doi: 10.1117/12.48402

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1569:
Stochastic and Neural Methods in Signal Processing, Image Processing, and Computer Vision
Su-Shing Chen, Editor(s)