ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to knowledge-based information systems which include artificial neural networks, evolutionary computing, fuzzy logic and their fusion. Knowledge-based systems are designed to mimic the performance of biological systems. Artificial neural networks can mimic the biological information processing mechanism in a very limited sense. Evolutionary computing algorithms are used for optimization applications, and fuzzy logic provides a basis for representing uncertain and imprecise knowledge. The trend is to fuse these novel paradigms in order that the demerits of one paradigm may be offset by the merits of another. These fundamental paradigms form the basis of the novel design and application related projects presented in the following chapters.
