The importance of Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is recognized in academia, industry and society. This book introduces tools for dealing with imprecision and uncertainty in XAI applications where explanations are demanded, mainly in natural language. Design of Explainable Fuzzy Systems (EXFS) is rooted in Interpretable Fuzzy Systems, which are thoroughly covered in the book. The idea of interpretability in fuzzy systems, which is grounded on mathematical constraints and assessment functions, is firstly introduced. Then, design methodologies are described. Finally, the book shows with practical examples how to design EXFS from interpretable fuzzy systems and natural language generation. This approach is supported by open source software. The book is intended for researchers, students and practitioners who wish to explore EXFS from theoretical and practical viewpoints. The breadth of coverage will inspire novel applications and scientific advancements.

The unexpected and premature passing away of Professor Ebrahim H. "Abe" Mamdani on January, 22, 2010, was a big shock to the scientific community, to all his friends and colleagues around the world, and to his close relatives. Professor Mamdani was a remarkable figure in the academic world, as he contributed to so many areas of science and technology. Of great relevance are his latest thoughts and ideas on the study of language and its handling by computers. The fuzzy logic community is particularly indebted to Abe Mamdani (1941-2010) who, in 1975, in his famous paper An Experiment in Linguistic Synthesis with a Fuzzy Logic Controller, jointly written with his student Sedrak Assilian, introduced the novel idea of fuzzy control. This was an elegant engineering approach to the modeling and control of complex processes for which mathematical models were unknown or too difficult to build, yet they could effectively and efficiently be controlled by human operators. This ground-breaking idea has found innumerable applications and can be considered as one of the main factors for the proliferation and adoption of fuzzy logic technology. Professor Mamdani's own life and vital experience are illustrative of his "never surrendering" attitude while facing adversaries, which is normal for a person proposing any novel solution, and represent a great example for everybody. His subtle sense of humor, his joy for life, and his will to critically help people, especially young people, were characteristics deeply appreciated by all the people who enjoyed and benefited from his friendship and advice. This book constitutes a posthumous homage to Abe Mamdani. It is a collection of original papers related in some way to his works, ideas and vision, and especially written by researchers directly acquainted with him or with his work. The underlying goal of this book will be fulfilled if, in the very spirit of Mamdani's legacy, the papers will trigger a scientific or philosophical debate on the issues covered, or contribute to a cross-fertilization of ideas in the various fields.

(Preliminary) The book is a comprehensive collection of the most recent and significant research and applications in the field of fuzzy logic. It covers fuzzy structures, systems, rules, operations as well as important applications, e.g in decision making, environmental prediction and prevention, and communication. It is dedicated to Enric Trillas as an acknowledgement for his pioneering research in the field. The book include a foreword by Lotfi A. Zadeh.

Intelligent systems enhance the capacities made available by the internet and other computer-based technologies. This book is devoted to various aspects of the management of intelligent systems. Particular attention is paid to situations in which the available information and data may be imprecise, uncertain, incomplete or of linguistic nature. Various methods developed to manage such information are discussed in the context of several domains of application. Topics included in the book include preference modelling and decision making, learning, clustering and data mining, information retrieval. The paradigm of computing with words is also addressed.

Intelligent systems enhance the capacities made available by the internet and other computer-based technologies. This book deals with the theory behind the solutions to difficult problems in the construction of intelligent systems. Particular attention is paid to situations in which the available information and data may be imprecise, uncertain, incomplete or of linguistic nature. Various methodologies for these cases are discussed, among which are probabilistic, possibilistic, fuzzy, logical, evidential and network-based frameworks. One purpose of the book is to consider how these methods can be used cooperatively. Topics included in the book include fundamental issues in uncertainty, the rapidly emerging discipline of information aggregation, neural networks, bayesian networks and other network methods, as well as logic-based systems.

Uncertainty exists almost everywhere, except in the most idealized situations; it is not only an inevitable and ubiquitous phenomenon, but also a fundamental sci- ti?c principle. Furthermore, uncertainty is an attribute of information and, usually, decision-relevant information is uncertain and/or imprecise, therefore the abilities to handle uncertain information and to reason from incomplete knowledge are c- cial features of intelligent behaviour in complex and dynamic environments. By carefully exploiting our tolerance for imprecision and approximation we can often achieve tractability, robustness, and better descriptions of reality than traditional - ductive methods would allow us to obtain. In conclusion, as we move further into the ageofmachineintelligence, theproblemofreasoningunderuncertainty, in other words, drawing conclusions from partial knowledge, has become a major research theme. Not surprisingly, the rigoroustreatment of uncertaintyrequiressophisticated - chinery, and the present volume is conceived as a contribution to a better und- standing of the foundations of information processing and decision-making in an environment of uncertainty, imprecision and partiality of truth. This volume draws on papers presented at the 2008 Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty (IPMU), held in Malaga, Spain, or- nized by the University of Mal aga. The conference brought together some of the world's leading experts in the study of uncertainty."

Fuzzy modeling usually comes with two contradictory requirements: interpretability, which is the capability to express the real system behavior in a comprehensible way, and accuracy, which is the capability to faithfully represent the real system. In this framework, one of the most important areas is linguistic fuzzy modeling, where the legibility of the obtained model is the main objective. This task is usually developed by means of linguistic (Mamdani) fuzzy rule-based systems. An active research area is oriented towards the use of new techniques and structures to extend the classical, rigid linguistic fuzzy modeling with the main aim of increasing its precision degree. Traditionally, this accuracy improvement has been carried out without considering the corresponding interpretability loss. Currently, new trends have been proposed trying to preserve the linguistic fuzzy model description power during the optimization process. Written by leading experts in the field, this volume collects some representative researcher that pursue this approach.

Fuzzy modeling has become one of the most productive and successful results of fuzzy logic. Among others, it has been applied to knowledge discovery, automatic classification, long-term prediction, or medical and engineering analysis. The research developed in the topic during the last two decades has been mainly focused on exploiting the fuzzy model flexibility to obtain the highest accuracy. This approach usually sets aside the interpretability of the obtained models. However, we should remember the initial philosophy of fuzzy sets theory directed to serve the bridge between the human understanding and the machine processing. In this challenge, the ability of fuzzy models to express the behavior of the real system in a comprehensible manner acquires a great importance. This book collects the works of a group of experts in the field that advocate the interpretability improvements as a mechanism to obtain well balanced fuzzy models.

The importance of Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is recognized in academia, industry and society. This book introduces tools for dealing with imprecision and uncertainty in XAI applications where explanations are demanded, mainly in natural language. Design of Explainable Fuzzy Systems (EXFS) is rooted in Interpretable Fuzzy Systems, which are thoroughly covered in the book. The idea of interpretability in fuzzy systems, which is grounded on mathematical constraints and assessment functions, is firstly introduced. Then, design methodologies are described. Finally, the book shows with practical examples how to design EXFS from interpretable fuzzy systems and natural language generation. This approach is supported by open source software. The book is intended for researchers, students and practitioners who wish to explore EXFS from theoretical and practical viewpoints. The breadth of coverage will inspire novel applications and scientific advancements.

(Preliminary) The book is a comprehensive collection of the most recent and significant research and applications in the field of fuzzy logic. It covers fuzzy structures, systems, rules, operations as well as important applications, e.g in decision making, environmental prediction and prevention, and communication. It is dedicated to Enric Trillas as an acknowledgement for his pioneering research in the field. The book include a foreword by Lotfi A. Zadeh.

The unexpected and premature passing away of Professor Ebrahim H. "Abe" Mamdani on January, 22, 2010, was a big shock to the scientific community, to all his friends and colleagues around the world, and to his close relatives. Professor Mamdani was a remarkable figure in the academic world, as he contributed to so many areas of science and technology. Of great relevance are his latest thoughts and ideas on the study of language and its handling by computers. The fuzzy logic community is particularly indebted to Abe Mamdani (1941-2010) who, in 1975, in his famous paper An Experiment in Linguistic Synthesis with a Fuzzy Logic Controller, jointly written with his student Sedrak Assilian, introduced the novel idea of fuzzy control. This was an elegant engineering approach to the modeling and control of complex processes for which mathematical models were unknown or too difficult to build, yet they could effectively and efficiently be controlled by human operators. This ground-breaking idea has found innumerable applications and can be considered as one of the main factors for the proliferation and adoption of fuzzy logic technology. Professor Mamdani's own life and vital experience are illustrative of his "never surrendering" attitude while facing adversaries, which is normal for a person proposing any novel solution, and represent a great example for everybody. His subtle sense of humor, his joy for life, and his will to critically help people, especially young people, were characteristics deeply appreciated by all the people who enjoyed and benefited from his friendship and advice. This book constitutes a posthumous homage to Abe Mamdani. It is a collection of original papers related in some way to his works, ideas and vision, and especially written by researchers directly acquainted with him or with his work. The underlying goal of this book will be fulfilled if, in the very spirit of Mamdani's legacy, the papers will trigger a scientific or philosophical debate on the issues covered, or contribute to a cross-fertilization of ideas in the various fields.

Uncertainty exists almost everywhere, except in the most idealized situations; it is not only an inevitable and ubiquitous phenomenon, but also a fundamental sci- ti?c principle. Furthermore, uncertainty is an attribute of information and, usually, decision-relevant information is uncertain and/or imprecise, therefore the abilities to handle uncertain information and to reason from incomplete knowledge are c- cial features of intelligent behaviour in complex and dynamic environments. By carefully exploiting our tolerance for imprecision and approximation we can often achieve tractability, robustness, and better descriptions of reality than traditional - ductive methods would allow us to obtain. In conclusion, as we move further into the ageofmachineintelligence, theproblemofreasoningunderuncertainty, in other words, drawing conclusions from partial knowledge, has become a major research theme. Not surprisingly, the rigoroustreatment of uncertaintyrequiressophisticated - chinery, and the present volume is conceived as a contribution to a better und- standing of the foundations of information processing and decision-making in an environment of uncertainty, imprecision and partiality of truth. This volume draws on papers presented at the 2008 Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty (IPMU), held in Malaga, Spain, or- nized by the University of Mal aga. The conference brought together some of the world's leading experts in the study of uncertainty."

Fuzzy modeling usually comes with two contradictory requirements: interpretability, which is the capability to express the real system behavior in a comprehensible way, and accuracy, which is the capability to faithfully represent the real system. In this framework, one of the most important areas is linguistic fuzzy modeling, where the legibility of the obtained model is the main objective. This task is usually developed by means of linguistic (Mamdani) fuzzy rule-based systems. An active research area is oriented towards the use of new techniques and structures to extend the classical, rigid linguistic fuzzy modeling with the main aim of increasing its precision degree. Traditionally, this accuracy improvement has been carried out without considering the corresponding interpretability loss. Currently, new trends have been proposed trying to preserve the linguistic fuzzy model description power during the optimization process. Written by leading experts in the field, this volume collects some representative researcher that pursue this approach.

Fuzzy modeling has become one of the most productive and successful results of fuzzy logic. Among others, it has been applied to knowledge discovery, automatic classification, long-term prediction, or medical and engineering analysis. The research developed in the topic during the last two decades has been mainly focused on exploiting the fuzzy model flexibility to obtain the highest accuracy. This approach usually sets aside the interpretability of the obtained models. However, we should remember the initial philosophy of fuzzy sets theory directed to serve the bridge between the human understanding and the machine processing. In this challenge, the ability of fuzzy models to express the behavior of the real system in a comprehensible manner acquires a great importance. This book collects the works of a group of experts in the field that advocate the interpretability improvements as a mechanism to obtain well balanced fuzzy models.

Intelligent systems enhance the capacities made available by the internet and other computer-based technologies. This book is devoted to various aspects of the management of intelligent systems. Particular attention is paid to situations in which the available information and data may be imprecise, uncertain, incomplete or of linguistic nature. Various methods developed to manage such information are discussed in the context of several domains of application. Topics included in the book include preference modelling and decision making, learning, clustering and data mining, information retrieval. The paradigm of computing with words is also addressed.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, TPNC 2015, held in Mieres, Spain, in December 2015. The 12 revised full papers presented together with 20 invited talks in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. The scope of TPNC is rather broad, containing topics of either theoretical, experimental or applied interest such as soft computing, computing architectures, and formal models.

Intelligent systems enhance the capacities made available by the internet and other computer-based technologies. This book deals with the theory behind the solutions to difficult problems in the construction of intelligent systems. Particular attention is paid to situations in which the available information and data may be imprecise, uncertain, incomplete or of linguistic nature. Various methodologies for these cases are discussed, among which are probabilistic, possibilistic, fuzzy, logical, evidential and network-based frameworks. One purpose of the book is to consider how these methods can be used cooperatively. Topics included in the book include fundamental issues in uncertainty, the rapidly emerging discipline of information aggregation, neural networks, bayesian networks and other network methods, as well as logic-based systems.