Enhanced fuzzy system models with improved fuzzy clustering algorithm

Although traditional fuzzy models have proven to have high capacity of approximating the real-world systems, they have some challenges, such as computational complexity, optimization problems, subjectivity, etc. In order to solve some of these problems, this paper proposes a new fuzzy system modeling approach based on improved fuzzy functions to model systems with continuous output variable. The new modeling approach introduces three features: i) an improved fuzzy clustering (IFC) algorithm, ii) a new structure identification algorithm, and iii) a nonparametric inference engine. The IFC algorithm yields simultaneous estimates of parameters of c-regression models, together with fuzzy c-partitioning of the data, to calculate improved membership values with a new membership function. The structure identification of the new approach utilizes IFC, instead of standard fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm, to fuzzy partition the data, and it uses improved membership values as additional input variables along with the original scalar input variables for two different choices of regression methods: least squares estimation or support vector regression, to determine "fuzzy functions" for each cluster. With novel IFC, one could learn the system behavior more accurately compared to other FSM models. The nonparametric inference engine is a new approach, which uses the alike k-nearest neighbor method for reasoning. Empirical comparisons indicate that the proposed approach yields comparable or better accuracy than fuzzy or neuro-fuzzy models based on fuzzy rules bases, as well as other soft computing methods.