Employing zSlices based general type-2 fuzzy sets to model multi level agreement

In this paper, we introduce the concept of Multi Level Agreement (MLA) based on (zSlices based) general type-2 fuzzy sets. We define the notion of MLA and describe how it can be computed based on a series of interval type-2 fuzzy sets. We provide examples, visualizing the nature of MLA sets and discuss their properties and interpretation. Moreover, we specifically address the reason for introducing MLA in order to allow the modeling of agreement in real world applications using fuzzy sets while still maintaining an uncertainty model and show that the use of general type-2 fuzzy sets is essential for MLA as classical sets, type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy sets do not provide a degree of freedom which could be employed to model agreement. © 2011 IEEE

From interval-valued data to general type-2 fuzzy sets

In this paper, a new approach is presented to model interval-based data using fuzzy sets (FSs). Specifically, we show how both crisp and uncertain intervals (where there is uncertainty about the endpoints of intervals) collected from individual or multiple survey participants over single or repeated surveys can be modeled using type-1, interval type-2, or general type-2 FSs based on zSlices. The proposed approach is designed to minimize any loss of information when transferring the interval-based data into FS models, and to avoid, as much as possible, assumptions about the distribution of the data. Furthermore, our approach does not rely on data preprocessing or outlier removal, which can lead to the elimination of important information. Different types of uncertainty contained within the data, namely intra- and inter-source uncertainty, are identified and modeled using the different degrees of freedom of type-2 FSs, thus providing a clear representation and separation of these individual types of uncertainty present in the data. We provide full details of the proposed approach, as well as a series of detailed examples based on both real-world and synthetic data. We perform comparisons with analogue techniques to derive FSs from intervals, namely the interval approach and the enhanced interval approach, and highlight the practical applicability of the proposed approach

Type-2 fuzzy alpha-cuts

Type-2 fuzzy logic systems make use of type-2 fuzzy sets. To be able to deliver useful type-2 fuzzy logic applications we need to be able to perform meaningful operations on these sets. These operations should also be practically tractable. However, type-2 fuzzy sets suffer the shortcoming of being complex by definition. Indeed, the third dimension, which is the source of extra parameters, is in itself the origin of extra computational cost. The quest for a representation that allow practical systems to be implemented is the motivation for our work. In this paper we define the alpha-cut decomposition theorem for type- 2 fuzzy sets which is a new representation analogous to the alpha-cut representation of type-1 fuzzy sets and the extension principle. We show that this new decomposition theorem forms a methodology for extending mathematical concepts from crisp sets to type-2 fuzzy sets directly. In the process of developing this theory we also define a generalisation that allows us to extend operations from interval type-2 fuzzy sets or interval valued fuzzy sets to type-2 fuzzy sets. These results will allow for the more applications of type-2 fuzzy sets by expiating the parallelism that the research here affords

On transitioning from type-1 to interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems

Capturing the uncertainty arising from system noise has been a core feature of fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) for many years. This paper builds on previous work and explores the methodological transition of type-l (Tl) to interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2 FSs) for given "levels" of uncertainty. Specifically, we propose to transition from Tl to IT2 FLSs through varying the size of the Footprint Of Uncertainty (FOU) of their respective FSs while maintaining the original FS shape (e.g., triangular) and keeping the size of the FOU over the FS as constant as possible. The latter is important as it enables the systematic relating of FOU size to levels of uncertainty and vice versa, while the former enables an intuitive comparison between the Tl and T2 FSs. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through a series of experiments using the well-known Mackey-Glass (MG) time series prediction problem. The results are compared with the results of the IT2 FS creation method introduced in [1] which follows a similar methodology as the proposed approach but does not maintain the membership function (MF) shape

General type-2 radial basis function neural network: a data-driven fuzzy model

This paper proposes a new General Type-2 Radial Basis Function Neural Network (GT2-RBFNN) that is functionally equivalent to a GT2 Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) of either Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) or Mamdani type. The neural structure of the GT2-RBFNN is based on the alpha-planes representation, in which the antecedent and consequent part of each fuzzy rule uses GT2 Fuzzy Sets (FSs). To reduce the iterative nature of the Karnik-Mendel algorithm, the Enhaned-Karnik-Mendel (EKM) type-reduction and three popular direct-defuzzification methods, namely the 1) Nie-Tan approach (NT), the 2) Wu-Mendel uncertain bounds method (WU) and the 3) Biglarbegian-Melek-Mendel algorithm (BMM) are employed. For that reason, this paper provides four different neural structures of the GT2-RBFNN and their structural and parametric optimisation. Such optimisation is a two-stage methodology that first implements an Iterative Information Granulation approach to estimate the antecedent parameters of each fuzzy rule. Secondly, each consequent part and the fuzzy rule base of the GT2-RBFNN is trained and optimised using an Adaptive Gradient Descent method (AGD) respectively. Several benchmark data sets, including a problem of identification of a nonlinear system and a chaotic time series are considered. The reported comparative analysis of experimental results is used to evaluate the performance of the suggested GT2 RBFNN with respect to other popular methodologies

Type-2 Fuzzy Alpha-cuts

Systems that utilise type-2 fuzzy sets to handle uncertainty have not been implemented in real world applications unlike the astonishing number of applications involving standard fuzzy sets. The main reason behind this is the complex mathematical nature of type-2 fuzzy sets which is the source of two major problems. On one hand, it is difficult to mathematically manipulate type-2 fuzzy sets, and on the other, the computational cost of processing and performing operations using these sets is very high. Most of the current research carried out on type-2 fuzzy logic concentrates on finding mathematical means to overcome these obstacles. One way of accomplishing the first task is to develop a meaningful mathematical representation of type-2 fuzzy sets that allows functions and operations to be extended from well known mathematical forms to type-2 fuzzy sets. To this end, this thesis presents a novel alpha-cut representation theorem to be this meaningful mathematical representation. It is the decomposition of a type-2 fuzzy set in to a number of classical sets. The alpha-cut representation theorem is the main contribution of this thesis. This dissertation also presents a methodology to allow functions and operations to be extended directly from classical sets to type-2 fuzzy sets. A novel alpha-cut extension principle is presented in this thesis and used to define uncertainty measures and arithmetic operations for type-2 fuzzy sets. Throughout this investigation, a plethora of concepts and definitions have been developed for the first time in order to make the manipulation of type-2 fuzzy sets a simple and straight forward task. Worked examples are used to demonstrate the usefulness of these theorems and methods. Finally, the crisp alpha-cuts of this fundamental decomposition theorem are by definition independent of each other. This dissertation shows that operations on type-2 fuzzy sets using the alpha-cut extension principle can be processed in parallel. This feature is found to be extremely powerful, especially if performing computation on the massively parallel graphical processing units. This thesis explores this capability and shows through different experiments the achievement of significant reduction in processing time.The National Training Directorate, Republic of Suda

IMPROVING UNDERSTANDABILITY AND UNCERTAINTY MODELING OF DATA USING FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEMS

The need for automation, optimality and efficiency has made modern day control and monitoring systems extremely complex and data abundant. However, the complexity of the systems and the abundance of raw data has reduced the understandability and interpretability of data which results in a reduced state awareness of the system. Furthermore, different levels of uncertainty introduced by sensors and actuators make interpreting and accurately manipulating systems difficult. Classical mathematical methods lack the capability to capture human knowledge and increase understandability while modeling such uncertainty. Fuzzy Logic has been shown to alleviate both these problems by introducing logic based on vague terms that rely on human understandable terms. The use of linguistic terms and simple consequential rules increase the understandability of system behavior as well as data. Use of vague terms and modeling data from non-discrete prototypes enables modeling of uncertainty. However, due to recent trends, the primary research of fuzzy logic have been diverged from the basic concept of understandability. Furthermore, high computational costs to achieve robust uncertainty modeling have led to restricted use of such fuzzy systems in real-world applications. Thus, the goal of this dissertation is to present algorithms and techniques that improve understandability and uncertainty modeling using Fuzzy Logic Systems. In order to achieve this goal, this dissertation presents the following major contributions: 1) a novel methodology for generating Fuzzy Membership Functions based on understandability, 2) Linguistic Summarization of data using if-then type consequential rules, and 3) novel Shadowed Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Systems for uncertainty modeling. Finally, these presented techniques are applied to real world systems and data to exemplify their relevance and usage

Fuzzy Transfer Learning

The use of machine learning to predict output from data, using a model, is a well studied area. There are, however, a number of real-world applications that require a model to be produced but have little or no data available of the specific environment. These situations are prominent in Intelligent Environments (IEs). The sparsity of the data can be a result of the physical nature of the implementation, such as sensors placed into disaster recovery scenarios, or where the focus of the data acquisition is on very defined user groups, in the case of disabled individuals. Standard machine learning approaches focus on a need for training data to come from the same domain. The restrictions of the physical nature of these environments can severely reduce data acquisition making it extremely costly, or in certain situations, impossible. This impedes the ability of these approaches to model the environments. It is this problem, in the area of IEs, that this thesis is focussed. To address complex and uncertain environments, humans have learnt to use previously acquired information to reason and understand their surroundings. Knowledge from different but related domains can be used to aid the ability to learn. For example, the ability to ride a road bicycle can help when acquiring the more sophisticated skills of mountain biking. This humanistic approach to learning can be used to tackle real-world problems where a-priori labelled training data is either difficult or not possible to gain. The transferral of knowledge from a related, but differing context can allow for the reuse and repurpose of known information. In this thesis, a novel composition of methods are brought together that are broadly based on a humanist approach to learning. Two concepts, Transfer Learning (TL) and Fuzzy Logic (FL) are combined in a framework, Fuzzy Transfer Learning (FuzzyTL), to address the problem of learning tasks that have no prior direct contextual knowledge. Through the use of a FL based learning method, uncertainty that is evident in dynamic environments is represented. By combining labelled data from a contextually related source task, and little or no unlabelled data from a target task, the framework is shown to be able to accomplish predictive tasks using models learned from contextually different data. The framework incorporates an additional novel five stage online adaptation process. By adapting the underlying fuzzy structure through the use of previous labelled knowledge and new unlabelled information, an increase in predictive performance is shown. The framework outlined is applied to two differing real-world IEs to demonstrate its ability to predict in uncertain and dynamic environments. Through a series of experiments, it is shown that the framework is capable of predicting output using differing contextual data