Fractional Fuzzy Inference System: The New Generation of Fuzzy Inference Systems

This paper presents a new machinery of compositional rule of inference called fractional fuzzy inference system (FFIS). An FFIS is a fuzzy inference system (FIS) in which consequent parts of a rule base consist of a new type of membership functions called fractional membership functions. Fractional membership functions are characterized using fractional indices. There are two types of fractional indices. Each type can be either constant or dynamic. An FFIS intelligently considers not only the truth degrees of information included in membership functions, but also the volume of the information in the process of making a conclusion. In other words, the volume of information extracted from a membership function depends on the truth degree of information. Concretely, the higher the truth degree, the larger the volume of information that is involved in the process of making a conclusion. It is shown that typical FISs, e.g. Mamdani's or Larsen's FISs, are special cases of FFISs. Specifically, as the fractional indices approach one, the FFIS approaches a typical FIS. In addition, using two theorems proved in this paper, it is demonstrated that, independent of the problem in question, a typical FIS never leads to results which are more satisfactory than those obtained by the FFIS corresponding to the typical FIS provided that a particular set of fractional indices is taken into account. Put another way, it seems sound to expect that applying FFIS always leads to more satisfactory results than applying its corresponding FIS. It is also shown that FFIS grants a special dynamic to FIS which can be also customized according to a new concept called reaction trajectories map (RTM). Particularly, the RTM enables decision makers to select an FFIS more suitable for their purpose. Some more concepts such as the left and right orders of an FFIS and the fracture index are also introduced in this paper.