What is Soft Computing
11/03/2024 1
What is Soft Computing ?
(Ref: L.A. Zadeh)
Soft computing differs from
conventional (hard) computing in that,
unlike hard computing, it is tolerant of
imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth,
and
approximation. In effect, the role model
for soft computing is the human mind.
11/03/2024 2
What is Hard Computing ?
• Hard computing, i.e., conventional
computing, requires a precisely stated
analytical model and often a lot of
computation time.
• Many analytical models are valid for
ideal cases.
• Real world problems exist in a non-
ideal environment.
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What is Soft Computing ?
(continued)
• The principal constituents, i.e., tools,
techniques, of Soft Computing (SC) are
• Fuzzy Logic (FL),
• Artificial Neural Networks (ANN),
• Evolutionary Computation (EC),
• Swarm Intelligence (i.e. Ant colony
optimization and Particle swarm
optimization, )
• Additionally Some Machine Learning
(ML) and Probabilistic Reasoning (PR)
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Premises of Soft Computing
• The real world problems are
pervasively imprecise and uncertain
• Precision and certainty carry a cost
• Some problems may not even have any
precise solutions
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Guiding Principle of Soft Computing
The guiding principle of soft computing
is:
•Exploit the tolerance for imprecision,
uncertainty, partial truth, and
approximation to achieve non-
conventional solutions, tractability
(easily handled, managed, or
controlled), robustness and low
costs.
11/03/2024 6
Hard Computing
• Premises and guiding principles of Hard
Computing are
- Precision, Certainty, and Rigor.
• Many contemporary problems do not
lend themselves to precise solutions such
as
- Recognition problems (handwriting,
speech, objects, images, texts)
- Mobile robot coordination,
forecasting,
11/03/2024
combinatorial problems etc. 7
Implications of Soft Computing
• Soft computing employs ANN, EC, FL
etc, in a
complementary rather than a
competitive way.
• One example of a particularly effective
combination is "neurofuzzy systems.”
• Such systems are becoming
increasingly visible
as consumer products ranging from air
conditioners and washing machines to
photocopiers, camcorders and many
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Unique Property of Soft computing
• Learning from experimental data
generalization
• Soft computing techniques derive their
power of generalization from
approximating or interpolating to
produce outputs from previously unseen
inputs by using outputs from previous
learned inputs
• Generalization is usually done in a high
dimensional space.
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Current Applications using
Soft Computing
• Handwriting recognition
• Automotive systems and manufacturing
• Image processing and data compression
• Architecture
• Decision-support systems
• Data Mining
• Power systems
• Control Systems
11/03/2024 10
Future of Soft
Computing
(Ref: L.A. Zadeh)
• Soft computing is likely to play an
especially
important role in science and
engineering, but
eventually its influence may extend
much
farther.
• Soft computing represents a
significant paradigm shift in the aims of
computing
11/03/2024 11
AI and Soft Computing:
A Different Perspective
AI: predicate logic and symbol
manipulation techniques
User
Inference Global
Question Engine Database
User Interface
Explanation
Facility •
KB: Fact
Response • rules
Knowledge
Knowledge Acquisition
Engineer
Human Expert Systems
Expert
AI and Soft Computing
Fuzzy Set Theory
ANN
Knowledge representation
Learning and
Via
adaptation
Fuzzy if-then RULE
Genetic Algorithms
Systematic
Random Search
AI and Soft Computing
Fuzzy Set Theory
ANN
Knowledge representation
Learning and
Via
adaptation
Fuzzy if-then RULE
Genetic Algorithms AI
Systematic Symbolic
Random Search Manipulation
AI and Soft Computing
cat
Animal? cat
cut
Neural character
recognition
knowledge
