Identification of Key Variables Using Fuzzy Average With Fuzzy Cluster Distribution

Identification of the significance of input variables is very important for complex systems with high-dimensional input space. In this paper, a method using fuzzy average with fuzzy cluster distribution is proposed. To avoid the interference of different distributions of the sampling data, the distribution of fuzzy clusters in the sampling data is considered, instead of the original data set. To discover the input-output relationship, the methods of fuzzy rules and fuzzy C-means are first used to partition the original sampling data set into fuzzy clusters. A new data set with the same distribution of the fuzzy clusters is produced. The fuzzy average method is then applied to the new data set. By doing so, the interference of distribution of the original sampling data is removed. This method is straightforward and computationally easy. The performance is tested on both benchmark data and real-world data.