Hardware-Enabled Fuzzy Inference: Architectures, Platforms, and Emerging Trends

Abstract

Fuzzy logic systems are widely used for intelligent decision-making under uncertainty, offering interpretability and robustness across diverse applications. However, the growing demand for real-time edge intelligence has exposed the limitations of software-based fuzzy inference: unpredictable latency, excessive power consumption, and inefficient resource utilization. This has motivated extensive research into hardware acceleration, spanning platforms from custom analog circuits and digital ASICs to reconfigurable FPGAs and ultra-low-power microcontrollers. This survey presents the first comprehensive, platform-centric review of hardware fuzzy systems, systematically organizing the literature into three principal categories: FPGA-based implementations, ASIC and custom VLSI realizations, and embedded, IoT, and TinyML platforms. For each category, we analyze architectural organization, resource mapping strategies, implementation trade-offs, and key design challenges. Our cross-platform comparative analysis reveals that no single platform dominates across all metrics. FPGAs offer flexibility and rapid prototyping, ASICs deliver peak performance and energy efficiency, while embedded and TinyML systems balance low power and cost for edge deployment. Despite significant progress, critical research gaps persist: the absence of standardized benchmarks, limited scalability of rule bases, insufficient design automation, and limited support for online learning and emerging memory technologies. We outline future directions including in-memory fuzzy computing with memristive crossbars, integration with TinyML ecosystems, explainable hardware AI, and open-source design automation. This survey serves as a {reference for} researchers and practitioners working on hardware-enabled fuzzy intelligence.