The use of fuzzy databases and knowledge bases for aiding engineering projects

The IT tools that are widely used for aiding information and decision-making tasks in engineering activities include classic database systems, and in the case of problems with poorly-recognised structure – systems with knowledge bases. The uniqueness of these categories of systems allows, however, neither to represent the approximate or imprecise nature of available data or knowledge nor to process fuzzy data. Since so far there have been no solutions related to the use of fuzzy databases or fuzzy knowledge bases in engineering projects, it seems necessary to make an attempt to assess the possible employment of these technologies to aid analytical and decision-making processes.