Embedded Type-2 FLC for the Speed Control of Marine and Traction Diesel Engines

Marine and Traction propulsion systems operate in highly dynamic and uncertain control environments. The current speed controllers for marine/traction propulsion systems are based on PID and type-1 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) which cannot fully handle the uncertainties associated with such dynamic environments. A type-2 FLC can handle such uncertainties to produce a better performance. However, type-2 FLCs have a computational overhead associated with the iterative type-reduction process which can reduce the FLC realtime performance as embedded controllers generally have limited computational and memory capabilities. In this paper, we will introduce a real-time type-2 FLC that is suited for embedded controllers operating in marine/traction propulsion system. We have conducted numerous experiments where the embedded type-2 FLCs displayed a robust response, dealing with the uncertainties in real-time, outperforming PID and type-1 FLCs, whilst using smaller rule bases.