Interval-based uncertain reasoning

This thesis examines three interval based uncertain reasoning approaches: reasoning under interval constraints, reasoning using necessity and possibility functions, and reasoning with rough set theory. In all these approaches, intervals are used to characterize the uncertainty involved in a reasoning process when the available information is insufficient for single-valued truth evaluation functions. Approaches using interval constraints can be applied to both interval fuzzy sets and interval probabilities. The notion of interval triangular norms, or interval t-norms for short, is introduced and studied in both numeric and non-numeric settings. Algorithms for computing interval t-norms are proposed. Basic issues on the use of t-norms for approximate reasoning with interval fuzzy sets are studied. Inference rules for reasoning under interval constraints are investigated. In the second approach, a pair of necessity and possibility functions is used to bound the fuzzy truth values of propositions. Inference in this case is to narrow the gap between the pair of the functions. Inference rules are derived from the properties of necessity and possibility functions. The theory of rough sets is used to approximate truth values of propositions and to explore modal structures in many-valued logic. It offers an uncertain reasoning method complementary to the other two

Transformation-Based Fuzzy Rule Interpolation Using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets

In support of reasoning with sparse rule bases, fuzzy rule interpolation (FRI) offers a helpful inference mechanism for deriving an approximate conclusion when a given observation has no overlap with any rule in the existing rule base. One of the recent and popular FRI approaches is the scale and move transformation-based rule interpolation, known as T-FRI in the literature. It supports both interpolation and extrapolation with multiple multi-antecedent rules. However, the difficult problem of defining the precise-valued membership functions required in the representation of fuzzy rules, or of the observations, restricts its applications. Fortunately, this problem can be alleviated through the use of type-2 fuzzy sets, owing to the fact that the membership functions of such fuzzy sets are themselves fuzzy, providing a more flexible means of modelling. This paper therefore, extends the existing T-FRI approach using interval type-2 fuzzy sets, which covers the original T-FRI as its specific instance. The effectiveness of this extension is demonstrated by experimental investigations and, also, by a practical application in comparison to the state-of-the-art alternative approach developed using rough-fuzzy setspublishersversionPeer reviewe

On the incorporation of interval-valued fuzzy sets into the Bousi-Prolog system: declarative semantics, implementation and applications

In this paper we analyse the benefits of incorporating interval-valued fuzzy sets into the Bousi-Prolog system. A syntax, declarative semantics and im- plementation for this extension is presented and formalised. We show, by using potential applications, that fuzzy logic programming frameworks enhanced with them can correctly work together with lexical resources and ontologies in order to improve their capabilities for knowledge representation and reasoning

Extending Similarity Measures of Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets to General Type-2 Fuzzy Sets

Similarity measures provide one of the core tools that enable reasoning about fuzzy sets. While many types of similarity measures exist for type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy sets, there are very few similarity measures that enable the comparison of general type-2 fuzzy sets. In this paper, we introduce a general method for extending existing interval type-2 similarity measures to similarity measures for general type-2 fuzzy sets. Specifically, we show how similarity measures for interval type-2 fuzzy sets can be employed in conjunction with the zSlices based general type-2 representation for fuzzy sets to provide measures of similarity which preserve all the common properties (i.e. reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity and overlapping) of the original interval type-2 similarity measure. We demonstrate examples of such extended fuzzy measures and provide comparisons between (different types of) interval and general type-2 fuzzy measures.Comment: International Conference on Fuzzy Systems 2013 (Fuzz-IEEE 2013

Interval-valued and intuitionistic fuzzy mathematical morphologies as special cases of L-fuzzy mathematical morphology

Mathematical morphology (MM) offers a wide range of tools for image processing and computer vision. MM was originally conceived for the processing of binary images and later extended to gray-scale morphology. Extensions of classical binary morphology to gray-scale morphology include approaches based on fuzzy set theory that give rise to fuzzy mathematical morphology (FMM). From a mathematical point of view, FMM relies on the fact that the class of all fuzzy sets over a certain universe forms a complete lattice. Recall that complete lattices provide for the most general framework in which MM can be conducted. The concept of L-fuzzy set generalizes not only the concept of fuzzy set but also the concepts of interval-valued fuzzy set and Atanassov’s intuitionistic fuzzy set. In addition, the class of L-fuzzy sets forms a complete lattice whenever the underlying set L constitutes a complete lattice. Based on these observations, we develop a general approach towards L-fuzzy mathematical morphology in this paper. Our focus is in particular on the construction of connectives for interval-valued and intuitionistic fuzzy mathematical morphologies that arise as special, isomorphic cases of L-fuzzy MM. As an application of these ideas, we generate a combination of some well-known medical image reconstruction techniques in terms of interval-valued fuzzy image processing

On fuzzy-qualitative descriptions and entropy

This paper models the assessments of a group of experts when evaluating different magnitudes, features or objects by using linguistic descriptions. A new general representation of linguistic descriptions is provided by unifying ordinal and fuzzy perspectives. Fuzzy qualitative labels are proposed as a generalization of the concept of qualitative labels over a well-ordered set. A lattice structure is established in the set of fuzzy-qualitative labels to enable the introduction of fuzzy-qualitative descriptions as L-fuzzy sets. A theorem is given that characterizes finite fuzzy partitions using fuzzy-qualitative labels, the cores and supports of which are qualitative labels. This theorem leads to a mathematical justification for commonly-used fuzzy partitions of real intervals via trapezoidal fuzzy sets. The information of a fuzzy-qualitative label is defined using a measure of specificity, in order to introduce the entropy of fuzzy-qualitative descriptions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Interval-valued fuzzy graphs

We define the Cartesian product, composition, union and join on interval-valued fuzzy graphs and investigate some of their properties. We also introduce the notion of interval-valued fuzzy complete graphs and present some properties of self complementary and self weak complementary interval-valued fuzzy complete graphs

How to select combination operators for fuzzy expert systems using CRI

A method to select combination operators for fuzzy expert systems using the Compositional Rule of Inference (CRI) is proposed. First, fuzzy inference processes based on CRI are classified into three categories in terms of their inference results: the Expansion Type Inference, the Reduction Type Inference, and Other Type Inferences. Further, implication operators under Sup-T composition are classified as the Expansion Type Operator, the Reduction Type Operator, and the Other Type Operators. Finally, the combination of rules or their consequences is investigated for inference processes based on CRI

Fuzzy Interval-Valued Multi Criteria Based Decision Making for Ranking Features in Multi-Modal 3D Face Recognition

Soodamani Ramalingam, 'Fuzzy interval-valued multi criteria based decision making for ranking features in multi-modal 3D face recognition', Fuzzy Sets and Systems, In Press version available online 13 June 2017. This is an Open Access paper, made available under the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This paper describes an application of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) for multi-modal fusion of features in a 3D face recognition system. A decision making process is outlined that is based on the performance of multi-modal features in a face recognition task involving a set of 3D face databases. In particular, the fuzzy interval valued MCDM technique called TOPSIS is applied for ranking and deciding on the best choice of multi-modal features at the decision stage. It provides a formal mechanism of benchmarking their performances against a set of criteria. The technique demonstrates its ability in scaling up the multi-modal features.Peer reviewedProo