Fuzzy fitness functions applied to engineering design problems

Populations of design alternatives can be generated using evolutionary methods [Antonsson and Cagan, Formal Engineering Design Synthesis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001]. It has been shown that incorporating uncertainty, such as variations in the operating environment, simulated by variations in the evaluation of the fitness function, can synthesize designs that are robust to the variations. In this paper a class of fuzzy fitness functions (F3) and hybrid uncertainty fitness functions are introduced, which combine fuzzy and probabilistic types of uncertainties.