Some New Covering-Based Multigranulation Fuzzy Rough Sets and Corresponding Application in Multicriteria Decision Making

Multigranulation rough set theory is an important tool to deal with the problem of multicriteria information system. The notion of fuzzy β -neighborhood has been used to construct some covering-based multigranulation fuzzy rough set (CMFRS) models through multigranulation fuzzy measure. But the β -neighborhood has not been used in these models, which can be seen as the bridge of fuzzy covering-based rough sets and covering-based rough sets. In this paper, the new concept of multigranulation fuzzy neighborhood measure and some types of covering-based multigranulation fuzzy rough set (CMFRS) models based on it are proposed. They can be seen as the further combination of fuzzy sets: covering-based rough sets and multigranulation rough sets. Moreover, they are used to solve the problem of multicriteria decision making. Firstly, the definition of multigranulation fuzzy neighborhood measure is given based on the concept of β -neighborhood. Moreover, four types of CMFRS models are constructed, as well as their characteristics and relationships. Then, novel matrix representations of them are investigated, which can satisfy the need of knowledge discovery from large-scale covering information systems. The matrix representations can be more easily implemented than set representations by computers. Finally, we apply them to manage the problem of multicriteria group decision making (MCGDM) and compare them with other methods.

Multigranulation Roughness of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets by Soft Relations and Their Applications in Decision Making

Multigranulation rough set (MGRS) based on soft relations is a very useful technique to describe the objectives of problem solving. This MGRS over two universes provides the combination of multiple granulation knowledge in a multigranulation space. This paper extends the concept of fuzzy set Shabir and Jamal in terms of an intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) based on multi-soft binary relations. This paper presents the multigranulation roughness of an IFS based on two soft relations over two universes with respect to the aftersets and foresets. As a result, two sets of IF soft sets with respect to the aftersets and foresets are obtained. These resulting sets are called lower approximations and upper approximations with respect to the aftersets and with respect to the foresets. Some properties of this model are studied. In a similar way, we approximate an IFS based on multi-soft relations and discuss their some algebraic properties. Finally, a decision-making algorithm has been presented with a suitable example.

Multigranulation roughness based on soft relations

The original rough set model, developed by Pawlak depends on a single equivalence relation. Qian et al, extended this model and defined multigranulation rough sets by using finite number of equivalence relations. This model provide new direction to the research. Recently, Shabir et al. proposed a rough set model which depends on a soft relation from an universe V to an universe W . In this paper we are present multigranulation roughness based on soft relations. Firstly we approximate a non-empty subset with respect to aftersets and foresets of finite number of soft binary relations. In this way we get two sets of soft sets called the lower approximation and upper approximation with respect to aftersets and with respect to foresets. Then we investigate some properties of lower and upper approximations of the new multigranulation rough set model. It can be found that the Pawlak rough set model, Qian et al. multigranulation rough set model, Shabir et al. rough set model are special cases of this new multigranulation rough set model. Finally, we added two examples to illustrate this multigranulation rough set model.

Incremental approaches to update multigranulation approximations for dynamic information systems

Multigranulation rough set (MGRS) theory provides an effective manner for the problem solving by making use of multiple equivalence relations. As the information systems always dynamically change over time due to the addition or deletion of multiple objects, how to efficiently update the approximations in multigranulation spaces by making fully utilize the previous results becomes a crucial challenge. Incremental learning provides an efficient manner because of the incorporation of both the current information and previously obtained knowledge. In spite of the success of incremental learning, well-studied findings performed to update approximations in multigranulation spaces have relatively been scarce. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose matrix-based incremental approaches for updating approximations from the perspective of multigranulation when multiple objects vary over time. Based on the matrix characterization of multigranulation approximations, the incremental mechanisms for relevant matrices are systematically investigated while adding or deleting multiple objects. Subsequently, in accordance with the incremental mechanisms, the corresponding incremental algorithms for maintaining multigranulation approximations are developed to reduce the redundant computations. Finally, extensive experiments on eight datasets available from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) are conducted to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed incremental algorithms in comparison with the existing non-incremental algorithm.

Relative relation matrix-based approaches for updating approximations in multigranulation rough sets

Multigranulation rough set (MGRS) theory has attracted much attention. However, with the advent of big data era, the attribute values may often change dynamically, which leads to high computational complexity when handling large and complex data. How to effectively obtain useful knowledge from the dynamic information system becomes an important issue in MGRS. Motivated by this requirement, in this paper, we propose relative relation matrix approaches for computing approximations in MGRS and updating them dynamically. A simplified relative relation matrix is used to calculate approximations in MGRS, it is showed that the space and time complexities are no more than that of the original method. Furthermore, relative relation matrix-based approaches for updating approximations in MGRS while refining or coarsening attribute values are proposed. Several incremental algorithms for updating approximations in MGRS are designed. Finally, experiments are conducted to evaluate the efficiency and validity of the proposed methods.

Relative Reduction of Neighborhood-Covering Pessimistic Multigranulation Rough Set Based on Evidence Theory

Relative reduction of multiple neighborhood-covering with multigranulation rough set has been one of the hot research topics in knowledge reduction theory. In this paper, we explore the relative reduction of covering information system by combining the neighborhood-covering pessimistic multigranulation rough set with evidence theory. First, the lower and upper approximations of multigranulation rough set in neighborhood-covering information systems are introduced based on the concept of neighborhood of objects. Second, the belief and plausibility functions from evidence theory are employed to characterize the approximations of neighborhood-covering multigranulation rough set. Then the relative reduction of neighborhood-covering information system is investigated by using the belief and plausibility functions. Finally, an algorithm for computing a relative reduction of neighborhood-covering pessimistic multigranulation rough set is proposed according to the significance of coverings defined by the belief function, and its validity is examined by a practical example.