Automatic synthesis of fuzzy systems: An evolutionary overview with a genetic programming perspective

Studies in Evolutionary Fuzzy Systems (EFSs) began in the 90s and have experienced a fast development since then, with applications to areas such as pattern recognition, curve‐fitting and regression, forecasting and control. An EFS results from the combination of a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) with an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA). This relationship can be established for multiple purposes: fine‐tuning of FIS's parameters, selection of fuzzy rules, learning a rule base or membership functions from scratch, and so forth. Each facet of this relationship creates a strand in the literature, as membership function fine‐tuning, fuzzy rule‐based learning, and so forth and the purpose here is to outline some of what has been done in each aspect. Special focus is given to Genetic Programming‐based EFSs by providing a taxonomy of the main architectures available, as well as by pointing out the gaps that still prevail in the literature. The concluding remarks address some further topics of current research and trends, such as interpretability analysis, multiobjective optimization, and synthesis of a FIS through Evolving methods.