A new approach to self-organizing multi-layer fuzzy polynomial neural networks based on genetic optimization

In this paper, we introduce a new topology of Fuzzy Polynomial Neural Networks (FPNN) that is based on a genetically optimized multilayer perceptron with fuzzy polynomial neurons (FPNs) and discuss its comprehensive design methodology involving mechanisms of genetic optimization, especially genetic algorithms (GAs). The development of the 'conventional' FPNNs uses an extended Group Method of Data Handling. The network exploits a fixed fuzzy inference type in each FPN of the FPNN as well as considers a fixed number of input nodes at FPNs (or nodes) located in each layer. Here, the proposed FPNN gives rise to a structurally optimized structure and comes with a substantial level of flexibility in comparison to the one we encounter in conventional FPNNs. The structural optimization is realized via GAs whereas in case of the parametric optimization we proceed with a standard least-square method-based learning. The performance of the networks is quantified through experimentation involving two time series dataset already used in fuzzy modeling. The results demonstrate their superiority over the existing fuzzy and neural models. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.