Cont . . .

 Classical set theory lays things out in terms of black and

white. You can observe an object and declare with
certainty whether or not it is a member of a particular
set.
 An object either definitely belongs to a set or definitely
does not. However, classical set theory is an ideal. In
reality, the things that we observe and deal with
everyday cannot be categorized into well defined sets.
Cont . . .
 For instance, if someone told you that the weather is
'warm', you may not know what it means, for your
definition of 'warm' may differ from the one you heard!
 A temperature of 20∘C can be considered 'warm' by
someone in the Addis Ababa and ‘cool by someone in
Adama. Just how warm is it? To what extent do the
boundaries of the set 'warm' stretch over the temperature
scale?
Cont . . .
 A basic difference between perceptions and measurements
is that, in general, measurements are crisp whereas
perceptions are fuzzy.
 In a fundamental way, this is the reason why to deal with
perceptions it is necessary to employ a logical system that is
fuzzy rather than crisp.
 The process of transforming crisp values into linguistic
terms (fuzzy sets) is called fuzzification.
 Example, transforming some speed of a car, such as
40km/hr, into the fuzzy values ‘very low’, ‘low’, ‘medium’,
‘high’, or ‘very high’.
Cont . . .
 Fuzzy sets were introduced as a means of representing and
manipulating data that was not precise, but rather fuzzy.
 Fuzzy logic provides an inference morphology that enables
approximate human reasoning capabilities to be applied to
knowledge-based systems.
 The theory of fuzzy logic provides a mathematical strength
to capture the uncertainties associated with human
cognitive processes, such as thinking and reasoning.
Cont . . .
 Against to the classical set theory, the Fuzzy Set Theory
(FST) deals with to what extent an object belongs to a
particular set. The degree to which an object lies in a
particular set is called the membership of the object in
that set.
 Memberships lie in the interval [0, 1]. If an object does
not lie in the set, it has a membership of 0 and it lies
completely within the set, it has a membership of 1.
Cont . . .
 Let X be a nonempty set. A fuzzy set A in X is
characterized by its membership function
μA : X → [0, 1]
, and μA(x) is interpreted as the degree of membership of
element x in fuzzy set A for each x ∈ X.
 Then the fuzzy set A is completely determined by the
set of tuples
A = {(u, μA(u))|u ∈ X}
 Frequently we will write A(x) instead of μA(x). The
family of all fuzzy sets in X is denoted by F(X).
Cont . . .
 If X = {x1, . . . , xn} is a finite set and A is a fuzzy set in
X then we often use the notation

A = μ1/x1 + ・ ・ ・ + μn/xn

, where the term μi/xi, i = 1, . . . , n signifies that μi is

the grade of membership of xi in A and the plus sign
represents the union.
 The above notation is equivalent to the following:

A = {(x1, μ1(x1)), (x2, μ2(x2)), (x3, μ3(x3)), … ,

(xn, μn(xn)) }
Cont . . .

 The set of support of a fuzzy set A is the set of all

elements x of X for which
(x, μA (x)) ∈ A and μA(x) > 0 holds.
 A fuzzy set A with the finite set of support {a1, a2, . .
. , am} can be described in the following way:
A = μ1/a1 + μ2/a2 + μ3/a3 +・ ・ ・ + μm/am
where μi = μA(ai) for i = 1, . . ., m.
CLASSICAL RELATIONS AND FUZZY
RELATIONS
 A classical relation can be considered as a set of tuples,
where a tuple is an ordered pair. A binary tuple is denoted
by (u, v), an example of a ternary tuple is (u, v, w) and an
example of n-ary tuple is (x1, . . . , xn).
 Example: Consider the following relation (u, v) ∈ R iff u ∈
[a, b] and v ∈ [0, c]:

Cont . . .
 A binary fuzzy relation R is a fuzzy subset of X × Y, i.e.
Cartesian product of nonempty relations X and Y. If R is a
binary fuzzy relation, then R (u, v) is interpreted as the
degree of membership of (u, v) in R.
 Example: A simple example of a binary fuzzy relation on U
= {1, 2, 3}, called ”approximately equal”, can be defined as

R (1, 1) = R (2, 2) = R (3, 3) = 1,

R (1, 2) = R (2, 1) = R (2, 3) = R (3, 2) = 0.8, and
R (1, 3) = R (3, 1) = 0.3
Cont . . .

 The member function of R is given by

Cont . . .
 In matrix notation it can be represented as
OPERATIONS WITH FUZZY RELATIONS:

 Fuzzy relations are very important because they can

describe interactions between variables. Let R and G be two
binary fuzzy relations on X × Y.

THE INTERSECTION OPERATION:

 The intersection of R and G is defined by

(R ∩ G)(u, v) = min{R(u, v),G(u, v)} =

R(u, v) ∧G(u, v), (u, v) ∈ X × Y.
Cont . . .

 THE UNION OPERATION:

 The union of R and S is defined by

(R ∪ G)(u, v) = max{R(u, v),G(u, v)} =

R(u, v) ∨G(u, v), (u, v) ∈ X × Y.
Cont . . .
 Example 1: Let us define two binary fuzzy relations
R = ”x is considerably smaller than y” ,
and
G = ”x is very close to y”
Cont . . .
 The intersection of R and G means that”x is considerably
smaller than y” AND”x is very close to y”.
Cont . . .
The union of R and G means that”x is considerably smaller
than y” OR”x is very close to y”.
Cont . . .
 Example 2: Assume as an example that X = {x1, x2, x3}. The
classical subsets
A = {x1, x2} and B = {x2, x3} can be represented as

A = 1/x1 + 1/x2 + 0/x3 B = 0/x1 + 1/x2 + 1/x3

 And the union and intersection of A and B can be put as

A∪B = 1/x1 + 1/x2 + 1/x3,

and
A∩B = 0/x1 + 1/x2 + 0/x3
Cont . . .
 The fuzzy union of two fuzzy sets can be computed in the
same way. The union of the two fuzzy sets:
C = 0.5/x1 + 0.6/x2 + 0.3/x3,
and
D = 0.7/x1 + 0.2/x2 + 0.8/x3

is given by

C ∪ D = 0.7/x1 + 0.6/x2 + 0.8/x3

 And their intersection is:

C ∩ D = 0.5/x1 + 0.2/x2 + 0.3/x3

COMPARING FUZZY SETS WITH CLASSICAL SETS
Classical set: Fuzzy set:

 The membership of  Fuzzy sets are sets whose elements have degrees of
membership between 0 and 1
elements in a set is
assessed in binary terms  Permits the gradual assessment of the membership of
elements in a set; this is described with the aid of a
according to a bivalent
membership function valued in the real unit interval [0,
condition — an element 1]
either belongs or does not
 is used to provide exact representations of concepts and
belong to the set relations that are vague, that is, with no sharp yes-no
borderline between cases covered, and cases not covered,
 Each element must have
by the concept or relation
either 0 or 1 as the
 Fuzzy sets generalize classical sets, since the indicator
membership degree—if 0,
functions of classical sets are special cases of the
the element is completely membership functions of fuzzy sets
outside the set; if 1, the
 The fuzzy set theory can be used in a wide range of
element is completely in domains in which information is incomplete or imprecise,
the set such as bioinformatics

 Examples of fuzzy sets include:

Cont . . .
 Example: Suppose we want to define the set of natural
numbers ”close to 1”. This knowledge can be expressed by
the classical set
{-2,-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4} , or
 by the Fuzzy set
A= {(-2,0.0), (-1,0.3), (0, 0.6), (1, 1.0), (2, 0.6),
(3, 0.3), (4, 0.0)}
Cont . . .
Intersection Union Complement
A∩B A∪B Ā

A B
A B A

μ A∩B ( x) = μ A∪ B (x) = μ Ā (x) =

Case 1: Classical Case 1: Classical Case 1: Classical

1, x ∈ A ∩ B 1, x ∈ A ∪ B 1, x ∉ A

0, x ∉ A ∩ B 0, x ∉ A ∪ B 0, x ∈ A

Case 2: Fuzzy Case 2: Fuzzy Case 2: Fuzzy

min (μ A (x ), μ B (x) ) max (μ A (x ), μ B (x) ) 1-μ A (x)

AND OR NOT
Cont . . .
Exercise: Let us consider a set of tall people, S={‘tall people’},
and lets define the degree of ‘tallness’ of people by the
following fuzzy subset
Cont . . .
Based on the above membership function, find the degree of
tallness of the following peoples:

Height(ft) degree of tallness

Name:

Abebe 3.2

Kebede 5.5

Abraham 7.2

Ishak 6.1
Cont . . .
And let a new set G={‘old peoples’}, where the fuzzy set is
defined as follows:
Cont . . .
 Based on the above fuzzy rule, find the degree of
membership of the following peoples:

age(yr) degree of
Name: oldness

Abebe 65

Kebede 55

Abraham 21

Ishak 17
Cont . . .
 Again based on the above two fuzzy sets, S and G, complete
the following table.
Let
a= {x is tall and x is old}
b= {x is tall OR x is old}
c= {x is NOT tall}

Name: Height(ft) age(yr) a b c

Abebe 3.2 65

Kebede 5.5 55

Abraham 7.2 21

Ishak 6.1 17
THE END
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