Development of granular models through the design of a granular output spaces

It becomes apparent that there are no ideal numeric models. Bringing a concept of information granularity to the original numeric model makes it well aligned with the experimental data and helps deliver a better insight into the credibility of the results provided by the model. Information granularity is regarded as a crucial design asset being optimally allocated across the numeric parameters of the originally constructed model. The underlying objective of this study is to propose a concept of a granular output space and develop an optimization process of allocation of information granularity across this space. The optimization is carried out by optimizing output information granules produced by the granular model by considering a product of the essential criteria describing information granules, namely specificity and coverage. The detailed optimization procedure involving Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is presented. We stress a generality of the approach that cuts across a variety of classes of models. A collection of experimental studies involving interval information granules is reported demonstrating the main features of the proposed approach. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.