FuzCon Information

Workgroup for Intelligent Systems in Design and Manufacturing

FuzCon

FuzCon is a Fuzzy Constraint Modeling System that allows a mixture of fuzzy and crisp (i.e. traditional) variables in a constraint network model. The modeling environment allows users to build systems to solve a variety of problems which arise in concurrent engineering, manufacturing, and design. In the approach, an application is constructed by specifying constraints that restrict the solution space. We define a constraint as any relationship that can be defined among one or more variables. Since constraints share common variables, they are interconnected and form a network of constraints from which the term "constraint networks" is derived. A solution is obtained by searching the space. The search is aided by constraint propagation and through interaction with an informed user. FuzCon uses fuzzy mathematics for modeling imprecision and user preference. It also includes traditional (crisp) mathematics so that systems can be modeled using various combinations to more accurately represent problem situations.

Background

FuzCon was developed at North Carolina State University by David Ress and Robert Young with assistance from Neil El Himam. Dr. Ress developed the software and Dr. Young worked out the fuzzy operator and constraint operations except for the fuzzy trigometric functions. These were developed by Dr. Ress as part of his PhD dissertation. The DDE connection, Distributed processing and database connection were developed by Dr. Ress. Mr. El Himam extended the system to include fuzzy trapezoidal numbers.

System Status

The system has been in development since 1996 and has evolved through approximately ten versions. It has been used extensively in class, in research work and in some large problems. The software appears to be stable and as far as we know is bug-free. However, it is research software and should be treated as a work in progress.

System Requirements

FuzCon executes under Windows 2000 or XP. It will also execute under Windows 95, 98 and ME. It also executes under WindowsNT.For distributed systems you will need multiple machines running any mixture of the operating systems. However, in distributed systems there seems to be some conflict between Windows NT and the others so we recommend either an all NT mix or a mix of the other operating systems. For all operating systems, to use advanced features such as the external database interface, the ODBC control panel and support drivers are required.

Downloading FuzCon

FuzCon and it's neccessary files can be downloaded from this web-page.

Download FuzCon 3.5.6 in an executable zipped format. (586k)

Documentation includes the following manuals in pdf file format.

The Software Interface (50 pages) -- Describes the software interface for FuzCon. This is necessary to construct programs
Fuzzy Program Construction (80 pages) -- Describes the program structure for a FuzCon program and how the system operates. This includes domain specification (implicit and explicit), variable specification (fuzzy numbers, linguistic variables, reals, integers, strings, lists), relation specification (relations are tablular information), constraint specification, and how to connect to external databases.
The DDE Interface: Interfacing FuzCon with other Programs (30 pages) -- Describes how to connect FuzCon to other programs using DDE.
A DDE Interface Example (5 pages) -- The Constraint Network listing.
Using External Databases (25 pages) -- How to connect to external relational databases. How to use them to store relations and domain definitions, including fuzzy numbers and llinguistic variables. How to specify relations for use in constraints.
Distributed Processing using FuzCon (42 pages) -- How to setup and execute multiple FuzCon programs running in different computers, communicating via a network (either peer-to-peer or Internet)

Download the complete FuzCon documentation in an zipped format (1.8k)

Publications