Learning discriminant functions with fuzzy attributes for classification using genetic programming

Classification is one of the important tasks in developing expert systems. Most of the previous approaches for classification problem are based on classification rules generated by decision trees, In this paper, we propose a new learning approach based on genetic programming to generate discriminant functions for classifying data, An adaptable incremental learning strategy and a distance-based fitness function are developed to improve the efficiency of genetic programming-based learning process. We first transform attributes of objects into fuzzy attributes and then a set of discriminant functions is generated based on the proposed learning procedure. The set of derived functions with fuzzy attributes gives high accuracy of classification and presents a linear form. Hence, the functions can be transformed into inference rules easily and we can use the rules to provide the building of rule base in an expert system. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.