Fuzzy interpolation and extrapolation: A practical approach

Fuzzy interpolation does not only help to reduce the complexity of fuzzy models, but also makes inference in sparse rule-based systems possible. It has been successfully applied to systems control, but limited work exists for its applications to tasks like prediction and classification. Almost all fuzzy interpolation techniques in the literature make strong assumptions that there are two closest adjacent rules available to the observation, and that such rules must flank the observation for each attribute. Also, some interpolation approaches cannot handle fuzzy sets whose membership functions involve vertical slopes. To avoid such limitations and develop a more practical approach, this paper extends the work of Huang and Shen. The result enables both interpolation and extrapolation which involve multiple fuzzy rules, with each rule consisting of multiple antecedents. Two realistic applications, namely truck backer-upper control and computer activity prediction, are provided in this paper to demonstrate the utility of the extended approach. Experiment-based comparisons to the most commonly used Mamdani fuzzy reasoning mechanism, and to other existing fuzzy interpolation techniques are given to show the significance and potential of this research.