A Fuzzy Bayesian Classifier with Learned Mahalanobis Distance

Recent developments show that naive Bayesian classifier (NBC) performs significantly better in applications, although it is based on the assumption that all attributes are independent of each other. However, in the NBC each variable has a finite number of values, which means that in large data sets NBC may not be so effective in classifications. For example, variables may take continuous values. To overcome this issue, many researchers used fuzzy naive Bayesian classification for partitioning the continuous values. On the other hand, the choice of the distance function is an important subject that should be taken into consideration in fuzzy partitioning or clustering. In this study, a new fuzzy Bayes classifier is proposed for numerical attributes without the independency assumption. To get high accuracy in classification, membership functions are constructed by using the fuzzy C‐means clustering (FCM). The main objective of using FCM is to obtain membership functions directly from the data set instead of consulting to an expert. The proposed method is demonstrated on the basis of two well‐known data sets from the literature, which consist of numerical attributes only. The results show that the proposed the fuzzy Bayes classification is at least comparable to other methods.     

Fuzzy rule interpolation based on principle membership functions and uncertainty grade functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets

Fuzzy rule interpolation is an important research topic in sparse fuzzy rule-based systems. In this paper, we present a new method for dealing with fuzzy rule interpolation in sparse fuzzy rule-based systems based on the principle membership functions and uncertainty grade functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets. The proposed method deals with fuzzy rule interpolation based on the principle membership functions and the uncertainty grade functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets. It can deal with fuzzy rule interpolation with polygonal interval type-2 fuzzy sets and can handle fuzzy rule interpolation with multiple antecedent variables. We also use some examples to compare the fuzzy interpolative reasoning results of the proposed method with the ones of an existing method. The experimental result shows that the proposed method gets more reasonable results than the existing method for fuzzy rule interpolation based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets.     

Distinguishability of interval type-2 fuzzy sets data by analyzing upper and lower membership functions

In this paper, we deal with the problem of classification of interval type-2 fuzzy sets through evaluating their distinguishability. To this end, we exploit a general matching algorithm to compute their similarity measure. The algorithm is based on the aggregation of two core similarity measures applied independently on the upper and lower membership functions of the given pair of interval type-2 fuzzy sets that are to be compared. Based on the proposed matching procedure, we develop an experimental methodology for evaluating the distinguishability of collections of interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Experimental results on evaluating the proposed methodology are carried out in the context of classification by considering interval type-2 fuzzy sets as patterns of suitable classification problem instances. We show that considering only the upper and lower membership functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets is sufficient to (i) accurately discriminate between them and (ii) judge and quantify their distinguishability.     

A fuzzy set based solution method for multiobjective optimal design problem of mechanical and structural systems using functional-link net

The principle of solving multiobjective optimization problems with fuzzy sets theory is studied. Membership function is the key to introduce the fuzzy sets theory to multiobjective optimization. However, it is difficult to determine membership functions in engineering applications. On the basis of rapid quadratic optimization in the learning of weights, simplification in hardware as well as in computational procedures of functional-link net, discrete membership functions are used as sample training data. When the network converges, the continuous membership functions implemented with the network. Membership functions based on functional-link net have been used in multiobjective optimization. An example is given to illustrate the method.     

Simultaneous design of membership functions and rule sets for fuzzycontrollers using genetic algorithms

This paper examines the applicability of genetic algorithms (GA's) in the simultaneous design of membership functions and rule sets for fuzzy logic controllers. Previous work using genetic algorithms has focused on the development of rule sets or high performance membership functions; however, the interdependence between these two components suggests a simultaneous design procedure would be a more appropriate methodology. When GA's have been used to develop both, it has been done serially, e.g., design the membership functions and then use them in the design of the rule set. This, however, means that the membership functions were optimized for the initial rule set and not the rule set designed subsequently. GA's are fully capable of creating complete fuzzy controllers given the equations of motion of the system, eliminating the need for human input in the design loop. This new method has been applied to two problems, a cart controller and a truck controller. Beyond the development of these controllers, we also examine the design of a robust controller for the cart problem and its ability to overcome faulty rules     

Generating an interpretable family of fuzzy partitions from data

In this paper, we propose a new method to construct fuzzy partitions from data. The procedure generates a hierarchy including best partitions of all sizes from n to two fuzzy sets. The maximum size n is determined according to the data distribution and corresponds to the finest resolution level. We use an ascending method for which a merging criterion is needed. This criterion is based on the definition of a special metric distance suitable for fuzzy partitioning, and the merging is done under semantic constraints. The distance we define does not handle the point coordinates, but directly their membership degrees to the fuzzy sets of the partition. This leads to the introduction of the notions of internal and external distances. The hierarchical fuzzy partitioning is carried independently over each dimension, and, to demonstrate the partition potential, they are used to build fuzzy inference system using a simple selection mechanism. Due to the merging technique, all the fuzzy sets in the various partitions are interpretable as linguistic labels. The tradeoff between accuracy and interpretability constitutes the most promising aspect in our approach. Well known data sets are investigated and the results are compared with those obtained by other authors using different techniques. The method is also applied to real world agricultural data, the results are analyzed and weighed against those achieved by other methods, such as fuzzy clustering or discriminant analysis.     

OFP_CLASS: a hybrid method to generate optimized fuzzy partitions for classification

The discretization of values plays a critical role in data mining and knowledge discovery. The representation of information through intervals is more concise and easier to understand at certain levels of knowledge than the representation by mean continuous values. In this paper, we propose a method for discretizing continuous attributes by means of fuzzy sets, which constitute a fuzzy partition of the domains of these attributes. This method carries out a fuzzy discretization of continuous attributes in two stages. A fuzzy decision tree is used in the first stage to propose an initial set of crisp intervals, while a genetic algorithm is used in the second stage to define the membership functions and the cardinality of the partitions. After defining the fuzzy partitions, we evaluate and compare them with previously existing ones in the literature.     

On the representation, measurement, and discovery of fuzzy associations

The use of fuzzy sets to describe associations between data extends the types of relationships that may be represented, facilitates the interpretation of rules in linguistic terms, and avoids unnatural boundaries in the partitioning of the attribute domains. In addition, the partial membership values provide a method for incorporating the distribution of the data into the assessment of a rule. This paper investigates techniques to identify and evaluate associations in a relational database that are expressible by fuzzy if-then rules. Extensions of the classical confidence measure based on the /spl alpha/-cut decompositions of the fuzzy sets are proposed to incorporate the distribution of the data into the assessment of a relationship and identify robustness in an association. A rule learning strategy that discovers both the presence and the type of an association is presented.     

Performance evaluation of fuzzy classifier systems formultidimensional pattern classification problems

We examine the performance of a fuzzy genetics-based machine learning method for multidimensional pattern classification problems with continuous attributes. In our method, each fuzzy if-then rule is handled as an individual, and a fitness value is assigned to each rule. Thus, our method can be viewed as a classifier system. In this paper, we first describe fuzzy if-then rules and fuzzy reasoning for pattern classification problems. Then we explain a genetics-based machine learning method that automatically generates fuzzy if-then rules for pattern classification problems from numerical data. Because our method uses linguistic values with fixed membership functions as antecedent fuzzy sets, a linguistic interpretation of each fuzzy if-then rule is easily obtained. The fixed membership functions also lead to a simple implementation of our method as a computer program. The simplicity of implementation and the linguistic interpretation of the generated fuzzy if-then rules are the main characteristic features of our method. The performance of our method is evaluated by computer simulations on some well-known test problems. While our method involves no tuning mechanism of membership functions, it works very well in comparison with other classification methods such as nonfuzzy machine learning techniques and neural networks.     

A new interval-valued knowledge measure for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets and application in decision making

In this paper, firstly we discuss some entropy measures for the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IvIFSs). Then we extend the knowledge measure for the intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) to propose a new interval-valued knowledge measure for the IvIFSs. Based on the proposed knowledge measure we construct a new interval-valued information entropy measure for IvIFSs, which is an extended notion of the entropy measures for IFSs. The proposed knowledge measure is defined as an interval of amounts of knowledge measured on an IvIFS, related to the uncertain information in terms of interval membership degree and interval non-membership degree. In comparison with other existing measures, it seems to be simpler and more intuitively appealing. Several illustrative examples are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method in handling with the increasing complexity of the decision making problems.     

Tuning certainty factor and local weight of fuzzy production rulesby using fuzzy neural network

Approximate reasoning in a fuzzy system is concerned with inferring an approximate conclusion from fuzzy and vague inputs. There are many ways in which different forms of conclusions can be drawn. Fuzzy sets are usually represented by fuzzy membership functions. These membership functions are assumed to have a clearly defined base. For other fuzzy sets such as intelligent, smart, or beautiful, etc., it would be difficult to define clearly its base because its base may consist of several other fuzzy sets or unclear nonfuzzy bases. A method to handle this kind of fuzzy set is proposed. A fuzzy neural network (FNN) is also proposed to tune knowledge representation parameters (KRPs). The contributions are that we are able to handle a broader range of fuzzy sets and build more powerful fuzzy systems so that the conclusions drawn are more meaningful, reliable, and accurate. An experiment is presented to demonstrate how our method works.     

Uncertain Fuzzy Clustering: Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Approach to C-Means

In many pattern recognition applications, it may be impossible in most cases to obtain perfect knowledge or information for a given pattern set. Uncertain information can create imperfect expressions for pattern sets in various pattern recognition algorithms. Therefore, various types of uncertainty may be taken into account when performing several pattern recognition methods. When one performs clustering with fuzzy sets, fuzzy membership values express assignment availability of patterns for clusters. However, when one assigns fuzzy memberships to a pattern set, imperfect information for a pattern set involves uncertainty which exist in the various parameters that are used in fuzzy membership assignment. When one encounters fuzzy clustering, fuzzy membership design includes various uncertainties (e.g., distance measure, fuzzifier, prototypes, etc.). In this paper, we focus on the uncertainty associated with the fuzzifier parameter m that controls the amount of fuzziness of the final C-partition in the fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm. To design and manage uncertainty for fuzzifier m, we extend a pattern set to interval type-2 fuzzy sets using two fuzzifiers m₁ and m₂ which creates a footprint of uncertainty (FOU) for the fuzzifier m. Then, we incorporate this interval type-2 fuzzy set into FCM to observe the effect of managing uncertainty from the two fuzzifiers. We also provide some solutions to type-reduction and defuzzification (i.e., cluster center updating and hard-partitioning) in FCM. Several experimental results are given to show the validity of our method     

Modeling data uncertainty on electric load forecasting based on Type-2 fuzzy logic set theory

Real applications based on type-2 (T2) fuzzy sets are rare. The main reason is that the T2 fuzzy set theory requires massive computation and complex determination of secondary membership function. Thus most real-world applications are based on one simplified method, i.e. interval type-2 (IT2) fuzzy sets in which the secondary membership function is defined as interval sets. Consequently all computations in three-dimensional space are degenerated into calculations in two-dimensional plane, computing complexity is reduced greatly. However, ability on modeling information uncertainty is also reduced. In this paper, a novel methodology based on T2 fuzzy sets is proposed i.e. T2SDSA-FNN (Type-2 Self-Developing and Self-Adaptive Fuzzy Neural Networks). Our novelty is that (1) proposed system is based on T2 fuzzy sets, not IT2 ones; (2) it tackles one difficult problem in T2 fuzzy logic systems (FLS), i.e. massive computing time of inference so as not to be applicable to solve real world problem; and (3) membership grades on third dimensional space can be automatically determined from mining input data. The proposed method is validated in a real data set collected from Macao electric utility. Simulation and test results reveal that it has superior accuracy performance on electric forecasting problem than other techniques shown in existing literatures.     

Switching between type-2 fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets: an application in medical diagnosis

When dealing with vagueness, there are situations when there is insufficient information available, making it impossible to satisfactorily evaluate membership. The intuitionistic fuzzy set theory is more suitable than fuzzy sets to deal with such problem. In 1996, Atanassov proposed the mapping from intuitionistic fuzzy sets to fuzzy sets. Furthermore, intuitionistic fuzzy sets are isomorphic to interval valued fuzzy sets, and interval valued fuzzy sets are regarded as the special cases of type-2 fuzzy sets in recently studies. However, their discussions are not only hardly comprehending but also lacking the reliable applications. In this study, the advantage of type-2 fuzzy sets is employed, and the switching relation between type-2 fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets is defined axiomatically. The switching results are applied to show the usefulness of the proposed method in pattern recognition and medical diagnosis reasoning.     

Designing of a type-2 fuzzy logic filter for improving edge-preserving restoration of interlaced-to-progressive conversion

This paper focuses on recently advanced fuzzy models and the application of type-2 fuzzy sets in video deinterlacing. The final goal of the proposed deinterlacing algorithm is to exactly determine an unknown pixel value while preserving the edges and details of the image. To begin, we will discuss some artefacts of spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal domain deinterlacing methods. In order to address the aforementioned issues, we adopted type-2 fuzzy sets concepts to design a weight evaluating approach. In the proposed method, the upper and lower fuzzy membership functions of the type-2 fuzzy logic filters are derived from the type-1 (or primary) fuzzy membership function. The weights from upper and lower membership functions are considered to be multiplied with the candidate deinterlaced pixels. Experimental results proved that the performance of the proposed method was superior, both objectively and subjectively to other different conventional deinterlacing methods. Moreover, the proposed method preserved the smoothness of the original image edges and produced a high-quality progressive image.     

An interval number distance- and ranking-based method for remotely sensed image fuzzy clustering

ABSTRACT

Fuzzy c-means clustering is an important non-supervised classification method for remote-sensing images and is based on type-1 fuzzy set theory. Type-1 fuzzy sets use singleton values to express the membership grade; therefore, such sets cannot describe the uncertainty of the membership grade. Interval type-2 fuzzy c-means (IT2FCM) clustering and relevant methods are based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Real vectors are used to describe the clustering centres, and the average values of the upper and lower membership grades are used to determine the classification of each pixel. Thus, the width information for interval clustering centres and interval membership grades are ignored. The main contribution of this article is to propose an improved IT2FCM* algorithm by adopting interval number distance (IND) and ranking methods, which use the width information of interval clustering centres and interval membership grades, thus distinguishing this method from existing fuzzy clustering methods. Three different IND definitions are tested, and the distance definition proposed by Li shows the best performance. The second contribution of this work is that two fuzzy cluster validity indices, FS- and XB-, are improved using the IND. Three types of multi/hyperspectral remote-sensing data sets are used to test this algorithm, and the experimental results show that the IT2FCM* algorithm based on the IND proposed by Li performs better than the IT2FCM algorithm using four cluster validity indices, the confusion matrix, and the kappa coefficient (κ). Additionally, the improved FS- index has more indicative ability than the original FS- index.     

基于2型模糊描述逻辑的知识描述与推理及其在信任管理系统中的应用

描述逻辑由于其强大的描述能力与成熟的推理算法而被广泛应用。然而,经典描述逻辑局限于处理确定的概念和关系,从而导致描述逻辑很难处理类似语义网等大型本体系统中的模糊知识。虽然1型模糊集可以一定程度上减轻不确定性带来的影响,但是其采用确定的隶属度值来决定模糊度的方法是不够精准的。与之相比,基于2型模糊集的系统能够利用隶属度区间更加精确地描述模糊信息。本文给出描述逻辑ALC的2型模糊扩展形式,并且给出并分析了2型模糊ALC的描述和推理方法。最后使用2型模糊ALC建立了一个基于模糊本体的信任管理系统FOntoTM。     

Bearing condition prediction considering uncertainty: An interval type-2 fuzzy neural network approach

Rolling-element bearings are critical components of rotating machinery. It is important to accurately predict in real-time the health condition of bearings so that maintenance practices can be scheduled to avoid malfunctions or even catastrophic failures. In this paper, an Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Neural Network (IT2FNN) is proposed to perform multi-step-ahead condition prediction of faulty bearings. Since the IT2FNN defines an interval type-2 fuzzy logic system in the form of a multi-layer neural network, it can integrate the merits of each, such as fuzzy reasoning to handle uncertainties and neural networks to learn from data. The interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic process in the IT2FNN enables the system to handle prediction uncertainties, since the type-2 fuzzy sets are such sets whose membership grades are type-1 fuzzy sets that can be used in failure prediction due to the difficult determination of an exact membership function for a fuzzy set. Noisy data of faulty bearings are used to validate the proposed predictor, whose performance is compared with that of a prevalent type-1 condition predictor called Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The results show that better prediction accuracy can be achieved via the IT2FNN.     

Type-2 Fuzzistics for Nonsymmetric Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets: Forward Problems

Interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2 FS) play a central role in fuzzy sets as models for words and in engineering applications of T2 FSs. These fuzzy sets are characterized by their footprints of uncertainty (FOU), which in turn are characterized by their boundaries-upper and lower membership functions (MF). The centroid of an IT2 FS, which is an IT1 FS, provides a measure of the uncertainty in the IT2 FS. The main purpose of this paper is to quantify the centroid of a non-symmetric IT2 FS with respect to geometric properties of its FOU. This is very important because interval data collected from subjects about words suggests that the FOUs of most words are non-symmetrical. Using the results in this paper, it is possible to formulate and solve forward problems, i.e., to go from parametric non-symmetric IT2 FS models to data with associated uncertainty bounds. We provide some solutions to such problems for non-symmetrical triangular, trapezoidal, Gaussian and shoulder FOUs.     

DCT-Yager FNN: a novel Yager-based fuzzy neural network with the discrete clustering technique.

Earlier clustering techniques such as the modified learning vector quantization (MLVQ) and the fuzzy Kohonen partitioning (FKP) techniques have focused on the derivation of a certain set of parameters so as to define the fuzzy sets in terms of an algebraic function. The fuzzy membership functions thus generated are uniform, normal, and convex. Since any irregular training data is clustered into uniform fuzzy sets (Gaussian, triangular, or trapezoidal), the clustering may not be exact and some amount of information may be lost. In this paper, two clustering techniques using a Kohonen-like self-organizing neural network architecture, namely, the unsupervised discrete clustering technique (UDCT) and the supervised discrete clustering technique (SDCT), are proposed. The UDCT and SDCT algorithms reduce this data loss by introducing nonuniform, normal fuzzy sets that are not necessarily convex. The training data range is divided into discrete points at equal intervals, and the membership value corresponding to each discrete point is generated. Hence, the fuzzy sets obtained contain pairs of values, each pair corresponding to a discrete point and its membership grade. Thus, it can be argued that fuzzy membership functions generated using this kind of a discrete methodology provide a more accurate representation of the actual input data. This fact has been demonstrated by comparing the membership functions generated by the UDCT and SDCT algorithms against those generated by the MLVQ, FKP, and pseudofuzzy Kohonen partitioning (PFKP) algorithms. In addition to these clustering techniques, a novel pattern classifying network called the Yager fuzzy neural network (FNN) is proposed in this paper. This network corresponds completely to the Yager inference rule and exhibits remarkable generalization abilities. A modified version of the pseudo-outer product (POP)-Yager FNN called the modified Yager FNN is introduced that eliminates the drawbacks of the earlier network and yi- elds superior performance. Extensive experiments have been conducted to test the effectiveness of these two networks, using various clustering algorithms. It follows that the SDCT and UDCT clustering algorithms are particularly suited to networks based on the Yager inference rule.