On The Shortest Path Problem: a New Approach with Fuzzy Inference Systems and Conventional Geographic Information Systems

This paper addresses the use of fuzzy logic to synthesize multiple numerical attributes on urban street networks, allowing conventional Geographic Information Systems - GIS to deal with the concept of a fuzzy "best path " instead of the classical "shortest path". A new methodology to use fuzzy inference in GIS, implementing fuzzy path planning inside an urban network model is proposed. A computational tool was developed to perform data acquisition, fuzzy inference and GIS database updating in real-time. Practical results of fuzzy path planning are presented and discussed.