Fuzzy Logic for Planning and Decision Making

Thisvolume starts with the basicconceptsof FuzzyLogic: the membership function, the intersection and the union of fuzzy sets, fuzzy numbers, and the extension principle underlying the algorithmic operations. Several chapters are devoted to applications of FuzzyLogic in various branches of Operations Research: PERT planning with uncertain activity durations, SMART and the AHP for Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) with vague preferential statements, ELECTRE usingthe ideasof the AHP and SMART, and Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) with weighted degrees of satisfaction. Finally, earlierstudiesof colour perception illustrate the attemptsto find a physiological basisfor the set-theoretical and the algorithmic operations in Fuzzy Logic. The last chapter also discusses somekey issues in linguistic categorization and the prospectsof FuzzyLogicas a multi-disciplinary research activity. I am greatly indebted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for the splendid opportunity to start the actual work on this book during my sabbatical leavefrom Delft (1993 - 1994); to LAMSADE, Universite de Paris-Dauphine, where many ideas emerged duringtwo winter visits (1989, 1990); to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, whereI got further inspiration duringa number of summer visits (1992, 1995, and 1996); and to the NISSAN Foundation in The Netherlands who enabled me to visit several Japanese universities (June 1996). Moreover, I gratefully acknowledge the stimulating supportgiven by many colleagues inthe International Society on Multi-Criteria Decision Making and in the European Working Group "Aide Multicritere Ii la Decision".