Using 'fuzzy logic' to land planes

Matthew Scerri, a final year ICT undergraduate, has created a system that helps to automatically land commercial aircraft in any weather conditions.

The system was successfully tested in a Microsoft flight simulator with crosswinds gusting at up to 60 knots - well beyond the recommended maximum that most airlines allow.

The system is one of the various innovative projects that will be displayed later this week at an exhibition of final year ICT student projects.

The system Scerri created uses what is known as fuzzy logic - a type of logic invented by Russian-Iranian mathematician Lotfi Zadeh, which is today found in many household appliances and devices such as digital cameras, which use it to automatically focus the lens.

Unlike conventional logic where everything is either true or false, fuzzy logic can accept many different values, allowing the system to have, for instance, various degrees of truth.

With fuzzy logic, a variable such as heat can assume many values, such as 'somewhat hot' or 'very hot' instead of just true or false.

Scerri wrote the fuzzy logic controller as part of his project and then consulted professional commercial pilots in order to build a set of fuzzy rules that drive the controller. He then tested the controller on Microsoft Flight Simulator X, which is one of the most popular PC flight simulators.

The controller took over the mouse and keyboard and 'landed' commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 737-800 at an airport. The controller used the fuzzy rules to determine the best values for thrust, rudder, flaps, ailerons, spoilers, and flare. The system was tested with high crosswinds, wind shear conditions, rain, and even fog.

Other innovative projects on display at the exhibition include a system that automatically annotates film scripts, and a programme that searches the sky for radio pulses from neutron stars.

The range and quality of the projects is proof of the talent and dedication of the students of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology.

The exhibition acts as a showcase where final year students, after finishing their exams and completing their studies, can display their degree projects to their parents, partners, the general public, and, perhaps more importantly, to prospective employers.

The exhibition will be officially open for University staff, VIPs, students, their parents, and their family and friends on Wednesday, and will be open to the public on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. The dates were chosen so as to not to clash with World Cup matches.

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Department of Intelligent Computer Systems, University of Malta.