Implementing the Method of Imprecision: an Engineering Design Example

Manuscript prepared for submission to the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems.

William S. Law
Engineering Design Research Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California 91125
law@design.caltech.edu

Erik K. Antonsson
Engineering Design Research Laboratory
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California 91125

The Imprecise Design Tool (IDT) presented in this paper implements the method of imprecision, which incorporates the designer's uncertainty in choice into design calculations, using a mathematics derived from fuzzy sets. IDT is intended to be a computational tool for preliminary engineering design.