Hybrid Interval Type-2 Mamdani-TSK Fuzzy System for Regression Analysis
This work addresses the trade-off between interpretability and accuracy in fuzzy systems for predictive modeling in fields like finance and healthcare, but it is incremental as it builds on existing fuzzy methods.
The paper tackled the problem of balancing interpretability and accuracy in regression analysis by proposing a hybrid fuzzy system that combines Mamdani and TSK models, achieving state-of-the-art performance in some cases with RMSE improvements ranging from 0.4% to 19% on benchmark datasets.
Regression analysis is employed to examine and quantify the relationships between input variables and a dependent and continuous output variable. It is widely used for predictive modelling in fields such as finance, healthcare, and engineering. However, traditional methods often struggle with real-world data complexities, including uncertainty and ambiguity. While deep learning approaches excel at capturing complex non-linear relationships, they lack interpretability and risk over-fitting on small datasets. Fuzzy systems provide an alternative framework for handling uncertainty and imprecision, with Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) systems offering complementary strengths: interpretability versus accuracy. This paper presents a novel fuzzy regression method that combines the interpretability of Mamdani systems with the precision of TSK models. The proposed approach introduces a hybrid rule structure with fuzzy and crisp components and dual dominance types, enhancing both accuracy and explainability. Evaluations on benchmark datasets demonstrate state-of-the-art performance in several cases, with rules maintaining a component similar to traditional Mamdani systems while improving precision through improved rule outputs. This hybrid methodology offers a balanced and versatile tool for predictive modelling, addressing the trade-off between interpretability and accuracy inherent in fuzzy systems. In the 6 datasets tested, the proposed approach gave the best fuzzy methodology score in 4 datasets, out-performed the opaque models in 2 datasets and produced the best overall score in 1 dataset with the improvements in RMSE ranging from 0.4% to 19%.