Generalized Type-2 Fuzzy Systems for controlling a mobile robot and a performance comparison with Interval Type-2 and Type-1 Fuzzy Systems

• A Generalized Type-2 Fuzzy Controller (GT2FC) was developed.
• Simulation of a GT2FC for a mobile robot is presented.
• Experiments support the notion that GT2FC handles more uncertainty.

The aim of this paper is to show that a Generalized Type-2 Fuzzy Control System can outperform Type-1 and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Control Systems when external perturbations are present. A Generalized Type-2 Fuzzy System can handle better uncertainty because of the nature of its membership functions, and as such, they are better tailored for situations where external noise is present. To test the noise resilience of Fuzzy Controllers, the design of a Fuzzy Controller for a mobile robot is presented in this paper, in conjunction with three types of external perturbations: band-limited white noise, pulse noise, and uniform random number noise. Noise resilience is measured through different performance indices, such as ITAE, ITSE, IAE, and ISE. Simulation results show that Generalized Type-2 Fuzzy Controllers outperform their Type-1 and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Controller counterparts in the presence of external perturbations.