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Fuzzy rule-based models are widely employed to tackle regression problems due to their simplicity and comprehensibility. Numeric functions (e.g., linear ones) are generally utilized to represent the conclusion part of a rule, but this simple module cannot well describe the behavior of data located within local area defined by the premise part. In this study, a novel reinforced fuzzy clustering-based rule model (RFCRM) is presented to address this issue. First, information granulation (Fuzzy C-Means) approach is used to reveal the structure in the data and divide the input space into local regions, as well as form the premise parts. Second, the augmented Random Vector Functional Link Networks (RVFLNs) are employed as the conclusion parts to strengthen the description and representation of the behavior of data positioned within the local regions. Weighted Least Squares Error estimation with regularization is exploited to estimate the coefficients of the connection weights of RVFLN. Also, an exponential weight method benefited from the weight function theory encountered in harmonic analysis is introduced to improve the penalty strategy of regularization in coefficient estimation. More specifically, an exponential weighted ℓ 2 regularization (EW ℓ 2) strategy equipped with the exponential functions as the penalty terms is proposed to realize the targeted penalty on coefficients. The merit of EW ℓ 2 over ordinary ℓ 2 is that different types of polynomial terms can be identified and penalized separately in coefficient estimation. This strategy not only prevents the decline of generalization ability, but also effectively enhances the prediction potential of the model. By combining weighted LSE based on EW ℓ 2 with FCM partition and the augmented RVFLN leads to better prediction accuracy as well as lower complexity (viz., number of rules). Finally, detailed experimental studies are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RFCRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the polynomial-based radial basis function neural networks (P-RBFNNs) have been successfully applied to regression tasks. However, the redundant and non-linear partitioned data easily interfere with accurate partitioning of clusters completed in P-RBFNNs, affecting the regression performance of this existing model. Because the squared error is used as the cost function of the learning method, P-RBFNNs are sensitive to noise interference. In order to cope with these problems, this study introduces a double iterative learning-based polynomial based-RBFNNs (DP-RBFNNs) modeling that focuses on the formation of architectures to improve the accuracy of regression performance as well as enhance the robustness through double iterative learning as follows: a) support vector-based Gaussian kernel fuzzy c-means (SV-GKFCM) as a kind of the support vector-based kernel fuzzy clustering are designed to determine connections (weights) between the input and hidden layers of the proposed model. SV-GKFCM helps effectively reduce the number of redundant data to re-modify the partitioning of clusters in the DP-RBFNNs. In addition, the cluster centers can be accurately updated from the non-linear partitioned data with the aid of Gaussian kernel distance in SV-GKFCM; b) least absolute shrinkage deviations (LASD) as a robust estimation are designed to update connection weights between the hidden and output layers. The SAE (sum of absolute error) function in the LASD method is used as a cost function to reduce the noise interference in the procedure of weight estimation as well as enhance the robustness of the DP-RBFNNs. The superiority of the proposed model is demonstrated through the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier based on ensemble learning approaches could be enhanced from the view point of accuracy, but the performance of these classifiers closely depends on the initial condition of the partitioning method used in the design. Furthermore, these classifiers are more easily affected by noise and outliers. In this study, a novel fuzzy quasi-linear SVM classifier realized with the aid of a composite kernel function and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering is proposed. The objective of this approach is to reduce the effect of noise and outliers and also handle the overfitting problem through the synergistic effect of the two methods: First, Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) is used to partition the training dataset into several subsets as a preprocessing phase of the proposed classifier. Second, the composite kernel based on multiple linear kernel expression is considered to avoid overfitting problem. In more detail, each training data is assigned to the corresponding membership degree. Some data which are potential noise or outliers are assigned with lower membership degrees and thus yield a small contribution to the composite kernel function. Then, the composite kernel function for multiple local SVMs is constructed according to the distribution of training data. The designed fuzzy quasi-linear SVM classifier is tested with both artificial and UCI data sets. It is also applied for sorting the problem of black plastic wastes being handled in the practice in order to verify the effective as well as efficient classification improvement. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method shows the elevated classification performance when compared to performance produced by the methods studied previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on two critical design aspects of a progressive fuzzy polynomial neural network (PFPNN): the influence of the gated recurrent unit (GRU) structure and the implementation of fitness-based candidate neuron selection (FCNS) through two probabilistic strategies. The primary objectives are to enhance modeling accuracy and to reduce the computational load associated with nonlinear regression tasks. Compared with the existing fuzzy rule-based modeling architecture, the proposed dynamic model consists of the GRU structure and the hybrid fuzzy polynomial architecture. In the initial two layers of the PFPNN, we introduce three types of polynomial and fuzzy rules into the GRU neurons (GNs) and fuzzy polynomial neurons (FPNs), which can effectively reveal potential complex relationships in the data space. The synergy of the FCNS strategies and the ℓ 2 regularization learning method is to design a progressive regression model adept at melding the GRU structure with a self-organizing architecture. The proposed GRU structure and polynomial-based neurons significantly improve the modeling accuracy for time-series datasets. The rational utilization of FCNS strategies can reinforce the network structure and discover the potential performance of neurons of the network. Furthermore, the inclusion of ℓ 2 norm regularization provides additional stability to the proposed model and mitigates the overfitting issue commonly encountered in many existing learning methods. We validated the proposed neural networks using six time-series, four machine learning, and two real-world datasets. The PFPNN outperformed other models in the comparison studies in 83.3% of the datasets, emphasizing its superiority in terms of developing a stable deep structure from diverse candidate neurons and reducing computational overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is concerned with a design of a face recognition algorithm realized based on feature extraction with the aid of the 2-directional 2-dimensional linear discriminant analysis referred to as (2D) 2 LDA. The 2DLDA algorithm yields high accuracy, but comes with an unresolved problem of handling large feature matrices present in face recognition problems. The proposed (2D) 2 LDA algorithm is computationally more efficient and produces more powerful discrimination decision. The proposed P-RBF NNs is used as a recognition module. The architecture of this module consists of three functional components. The coefficients of the P-RBF NNs model are obtained by fuzzy inference method forming the inference part of fuzzy rules. The essential design parameters (including learning rate, momentum, fuzzification coefficient, and the feature selection mechanism) of the networks are optimized by means of differential evolution (DE). The experimental results reported for benchmark face datasets – the Yale, ORL database, and IC&CI dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of (2D) 2 LDA algorithm compared with other pre-processing approaches such as LPP, 2D-PCA, 2D-LPP, SR, PCA, (2D) 2 PCA and fusion of PCA-LDA. The experimental results show that (2D) 2 LDA based P-RBF NNs achieves higher performance than being reported by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new passive auto focusing algorithm to acquire images with enhanced quality through a digital camera. The focus measure operations play a key role in a passive auto focusing method. The proposed focus measure operation is based on a localized version of image variance method. The localization of the image variance focus measure operation can be implemented with the use of fuzzy partition and Fuzzy Transform. In order to validate our approach, experimental comparative studies are conducted on test images with the use of different focus measure operators. The selected operators have been chosen from an extensive review of the state-of-the-art approaches. A comparative analysis demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is superior to the conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fuzzy modeling of complex systems is a challenging task, which involves important problems of dimensionality reduction and calls for various ways of improving the accuracy of modeling. The IG-FRBFNN, a hybrid architecture of the IG-FIS (Fuzzy Inference System) and FRBFNN (Fuzzy Radial Basis Function Neural Networks), is proposed to address these problems. The paper is concerned with the analysis and design of IG-FRBFNNs and their optimization by means of the Hierarchical Fair Competition-based Parallel Genetic Algorithm (HFC-PGA). In the proposed network, the membership functions of the premise part of the fuzzy rules of the IG-based FRBFNN model directly rely on the computation of the relevant distance between data points and the use of four types of polynomials such as constant, linear, quadratic and modified quadratic are considered for the consequent part of fuzzy rules. Moreover, the weighted Least Square (WLS) learning is exploited to estimate the coefficients of the polynomial forming the conclusion part of the rules. Since the performance of the IG-RBFNN model is affected by some key design parameters, such as a specific subset of input variables, the fuzzification coefficient of the FCM, the number of rules, and the order of polynomial of the consequent part of fuzzy rules, it becomes beneficial to carry out both structural as well as parametric optimization of the network. In this study, the HFC-PGA is used as a comprehensive optimization vehicle. The performance of the proposed model is illustrated by means of several representative numerical examples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, we introduce a new design methodology of fuzzy radial basis function-based polynomial neural networks. In many cases, these models do not come with capabilities to deal with granular information. With this regard, fuzzy sets offer several interesting and useful opportunities. This study presents the development of fuzzy radial basis function-based neural networks augmented with virtual input variables. The performance of the proposed category of models is quantified through a series of experiments, in which we use two machine learning data sets and two publicly available software development effort data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, we design polynomial-based radial basis function neural networks (P-RBF NNs) based on a fuzzy inference mechanism. The essential design parameters (including learning rate, momentum coefficient and fuzzification coefficient of the underlying clustering method) are optimized by means of the particle swarm optimization. The proposed P-RBF NNs dwell upon structural findings about training data that are expressed in terms of a partition matrix resulting from fuzzy clustering in this case being the fuzzy C-means (FCM). The network is of functional nature as the weights between the hidden layer and the output are some polynomials. The use of the polynomial weights becomes essential in capturing the nonlinear nature of data encountered in regression or classification problems. From the perspective of linguistic interpretation, the proposed network can be expressed as a collection of “if–then” fuzzy rules. The architecture of the networks discussed here embraces three functional modules reflecting the three phases of input–output mapping realized in rule-based architectures, namely condition formation, conclusion creation, and aggregation. The proposed classifier is applied to some synthetic and machine learning datasets, and its results are compared with those reported in the previous studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper is concerned with the identification of fuzzy inference systems (fuzzy models) realized with the aid of the successive tuning method using a variant identification ratio that is based on Hierarchical Fair Competition-based Parallel Genetic Algorithms (HFC-PGA) and information granulation. The HFC-PGA is a certain multi-population version of Parallel Genetic Algorithms (PGA), which is suitable for a simultaneous optimization of both the structure of the fuzzy model as well as its parameters. The granulation of information is realized with the aid of the C-Means clustering algorithm. Information granules formed in this way become essential at further stages of the construction of the fuzzy models by forming the centers (modal values) of the fuzzy sets constituting individual rules of the inference schemes. Further optimization of the fuzzy model deals with an adjustment of a suite of parameters (such as the number of input variables to be used in the model, a collection of specific subsets of the input variables, and the number of membership functions) being used by these variables, and the order and parameters of the polynomial occurring in the conclusions of the corresponding rules. An iterative development of the fuzzy model deals with its structural as well as parametric optimization via HFC-PGA, the C-Means algorithm, and a standard least square estimation method. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, we exploit well known and commonly used data sets such as gas furnace, Mackey–Glass time series as well as medical imaging system. A comparative analysis demonstrates that the proposed model leads to the superior performance when compared with other fuzzy models reported in the literature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Experimental software data sets describing software projects in terms of their complexity and development time have been a subject of intensive modeling. A number of various modeling methodologies and modeling designs have been proposed including neural networks, fuzzy, and neurofuzzy models. In this study, we introduce a concept of Self-organizing neurofuzzy networks (SONFN), a hybrid modeling architecture combining neurofuzzy networks (NFN) and polynomial neural networks (PNN). The development of the SONFN dwells on the technologies of Computational Intelligence (CI), namely fuzzy sets, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. The architecture of the SONFN results from a synergistic usage of neurofuzzy networks (NFNs) and polynomial neural networks (PNNs). NFNs contribute to the formation of the premise part of the rule-based structure of the SONFN. The consequence part of the SONFN is designed using PNNs. We discuss two classes of SONFN architectures and propose comprehensive learning algorithms. The experimental results include well-known software data such as the NASA data set concerning software cost estimation and the one describing software modules of the Medical Imaging System (MIS). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study, we introduce and investigate a class of neural architectures of polynomial neural networks (PNNs), develop a comprehensive design methodology and carry out a series of numeric experiments. PNN is a flexible neural architecture whose structure (topology) is developed through learning. In particular, the number of layers of the PNN is not fixed in advance but is generated on the fly. In this sense, PNN is a self-organizing network. We distinguish between two kinds of SOPNN architectures, that is, (a) polynomial neuron (PN) based and (b) fuzzy polynomial neuron (FPN) based self-organizing networks. This taxonomy is based on the character of each neuron structure in the network. Each of them comes with two structures referred here to as basic and the modified topology. Moreover, for each topology of the SOPNN we identify two types that is a generic and advanced type. The essence of the design procedure of self-organizing polynomial neural networks (SOPNN) dwells on the group method of data handling (GMDH) (IEEE Trans. Systems Man and Cybernet. 12 (1971) 364). Each node of the PN based SOPNN exhibits a high level of flexibility and realizes a polynomial type of mapping (linear, quadratic, and cubic) between input and output variables. FPN based SOPNN dwells on the ideas of fuzzy rule-based computing and neural networks. Especially in FPN based SOPNN, the generic rules in the system assume the form “if A then y = P(x)” where A is a fuzzy relation in the condition space while P(x) is a polynomial forming a conclusion part of the rule. Each FPN (processing element) consists of a series of the nonlinear inference rules. The conclusion part of the rules, especially the regression polynomial uses several types of high-order polynomials such as linear, quadratic, modified quadratic, and cubic. As the premise part of the rules, both triangular and Gaussian-like membership functions are studied. Simulations involve a series of synthetic as well as experimental data used across various neurofuzzy systems. A detailed comparative analysis is included as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces an identification method for nonlinear models in the form of Fuzzy-Neural Networks (FNN). In this model, we use two forms of the fuzzy inference methods—a simplified and linear fuzzy inference, and exploit a standard Error Back Propagation learning algorithm. The FNN modeling and identification environment realizes parameter identification through a synergistic usage of clustering techniques, genetic optimization and a complex search method. We use a Hard C-Means (HCM) clustering algorithm to determine initial apexes of the membership functions of the information granules used in this fuzzy model. The parameters such as apexes of membership functions, learning rates, and momentum coefficients are then adjusted using hybrid algorithm. The proposed hybrid identification algorithm is carried out by combining both genetic optimization (genetic algorithm, GA) and the improved complex method. An aggregate objective function (performance index) with a weighting factor is introduced to achieve a sound balance between approximation and generalization of the model. According to the selection and adjustment of the weighting factor of this objective function, we reveal how to design a model with sound approximation and generalization abilities. The proposed model is experimented with using several time series data (gas furnace, sewage treatment process and NOx emission process data of gas turbine power plant). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study is concerned with the concept of Ensemble Fuzzy Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (EFRBFNN) endowed with clustering techniques, polynomial-based LSE/WLSE learning as well as their optimization implemented by Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO). The network architecture of the proposed EFRBFNN classifier is considered three types of clustering techniques and four forms of regression polynomials. The proposed classifier can not only fully capture the local distribution (feature) information contained in the data, but also choose effective network architecture for improving classification performance and compactness. Three classes of clustering techniques (such as iterative self-organizing data analysis techniques algorithm (ISODATA), affinity propagation (AP), and extended K-means) are considered to effectively produce membership degrees based on feature information extraction suitable to fit data characteristics. Least Square Error Estimation (LSE) and Weighted Least Square Error Estimation (WLSE)-based learning with four types of regression polynomials are considered to estimate to coefficients of polynomials. MOPSO is exploited for choosing the effective architecture among different clustering techniques, polynomials, and polynomial-based learning with multi-objective parametric optimization. MOPSO helps achieve a sound compromise between the preferred classification performance and the compactness realized with the aid of four objective functions such as a) classification accuracy (CA), b) complexity of clustering, c) complexity of polynomial and d) sum of squared coefficients (SSC). The improvement and effectiveness of the proposed network architecture are quantified on a basis of the comprehensive experimental results and also a comparative analysis is offered to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed classifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]