A Hierarchical Approach to Designing Approximate Reasoning-Based Controllers for Dynamic Physical Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a new technique for the design of approximate reasoning based controllers for dynamic physical systems with interacting goals. In this approach, goals are achieved based on a hierarchy defined by a control knowledge base and remain highly interactive during the execution of the control task. The approach has been implemented in a rule-based computer program which is used in conjunction with a prototype hardware system to solve the cart-pole balancing problem in real-time. It provides a complementary approach to the conventional analytical control methodology, and is of substantial use where a precise mathematical model of the process being controlled is not available.