Swarm Intelligence and the Taguchi Method for Identification of Fuzzy Models

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Nature is a wonderful source of inspiration for building models and techniques for solving difficult problems in design, optimisation, and control. More specifically, the study of evolution, the human immune system, and the collective behaviour of insects/birds have guided the origin of evolutionary algorithms, artificial immune systems, and optimisation techniques based on swarm intelligence, respectively. In this chapter, we present the use of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and the Taguchi method for the identification of optimised fuzzy models from the available data. PSO is a member of the broad category of swarm intelligence (SI) techniques based on the metaphor of social interaction. It has been used for finding promising solutions in complex search spaces through the interaction of particles in a swarm, and is especially useful when dealingwith a high number of dimensions and situations where problem-specific information is not available. However, caution needs to be exercised in selecting PSO, as the performance of PSO largely depends on their values. In this chapter, a systematic reasoning approach based on the Taguchi method is also presented to quickly identify PSO parameters. The Taguchi method is a robust design approach that helps in optimisation, and which requires relatively few experiments. Although we focus here on the use of PSO and the Taguchi method for fuzzy model identification, these techniques have much broader use and application. In order to validate our approach, data from the rapid Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) battery charger developed by the authors were used. The results are based on real data and illustrate the viability and efficiency of the approach.