A Fast Method for Fuzzy Rules Learning with Derivative-Free Optimization by Formulating Independent Evaluations of Each Fuzzy Rule

A method is proposed for evaluating fuzzy rules independently of each other in fuzzy rules learning. The proposed method is named α-FUZZI-ES (α-weight-based fuzzy-rule independent evaluations) in this paper. In α-FUZZI-ES, the evaluation value of a fuzzy system is divided out among the fuzzy rules by using the compatibility degrees of the learning data. By the effective use of α-FUZZI-ES, a method for fast fuzzy rules learning is proposed. This is named α-FUZZI-ES learning ( -FUZZI-ES-based fuzzy rules learning) in this paper. α-FUZZI-ES learning is especially effective when evaluation functions are not differentiable and derivative-based optimization methods cannot be applied to fuzzy rules learning. α-FUZZI-ES learning makes it possible to optimize fuzzy rules independently of each other. This property reduces the dimensionality of the search space in finding the optimum fuzzy rules. Thereby, α-FUZZI-ES learning can attain fast convergence in fuzzy rules optimization. Moreover, α-FUZZI-ES learning can be efficiently performed with hardware in parallel to optimize fuzzy rules independently of each other. Numerical results show that α-FUZZI-ES learning is superior to the exemplary conventional scheme in terms of accuracy and convergence speed when the evaluation function is non-differentiable.