Introduction to Soft Computing

Operations on Fuzzy sets

Prof. Debasis Samanta

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Union
Union (A ∪ B): 𝜇𝐴∪𝐵 𝑥 = max(𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 )

Example:
𝐴 = {(𝑥1, 0.5), (𝑥2, 0.1), (𝑥3, 0.4)} and
𝐵 = { 𝑥1, 0.2 , 𝑥2, 0.3 , 𝑥3, 0.5 };
𝐶 = 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = { 𝑥1, 0.5 , 𝑥2, 0.3 , 𝑥3, 0.5 }

µA µA
µB µB
µ

µAUB
a p x b q c a p x b q c

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Intersection
Intersection (A ∩ B): 𝜇𝐴∩𝐵 𝑥 = min(𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 )

Example:
𝐴 = {(𝑥1, 0.5), (𝑥2, 0.1), (𝑥3, 0.4)} and
𝐵 = { 𝑥1, 0.2 , 𝑥2, 0.3 , 𝑥3, 0.5 };
𝐶 = 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 = { 𝑥1, 0.2 , 𝑥2, 0.1 , 𝑥3, 0.4 }
µA
µB

µA?B
µ

a p x b q c a p x b q c

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Complement
Complement (𝐴𝑐 ): 𝜇𝐴𝑐 𝑥 = 1 − 𝜇𝐴 𝑥

Example:
𝐴 = {(𝑥1, 0.5), (𝑥2, 0.1), (𝑥3, 0.4)}
𝐶 = 𝐴𝑐 = { 𝑥1, 0.5 , 𝑥2, 0.9 , 𝑥3, 0.6 }
µA µA
1.0 µA’

p x q p x q

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Products

Algebric product or Vector product (𝑨 ∙ 𝑩):

𝜇𝐴∙𝐵 𝑥 = 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 ∙ 𝜇𝐵 𝑥

Scalar product (𝜶 × 𝑨):

𝜇𝛼𝐴 𝑥 = 𝛼 × 𝜇𝐴 𝑥

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Sum and Difference
Sum (A + B):
𝜇𝐴+𝐵 𝑥 = 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 + 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 − 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 . 𝜇𝐵 𝑥
Difference (𝐴 − 𝐵 = 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵𝐶 ) :
𝜇𝐴−𝐵 𝑥 = 𝜇𝐴∩𝐵𝐶 𝑥
Disjunctive sum:
𝐴⨁𝐵 = (𝐴𝐶 ∩ 𝐵) ∪ (𝐴 ∩ 𝐵𝐶 )
Bounded Sum:
| 𝐴 𝑥 ⨁𝐵 𝑥 |= 𝜇|𝐴(𝑥)⨁𝐵(𝑥)| = min{1, 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 + 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 }
Bounded Difference:
𝐴 𝑥 ⊖𝐵 𝑥 = 𝜇|𝐴(𝑥)⊖𝐵(𝑥)| = max{0, 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 + 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 − 1}

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Equality and Power
Equality (𝐴 = 𝐵):
𝜇𝐴 𝑥 = 𝜇𝐵 𝑥
Power of a fuzzy set 𝐴𝛼 :
𝜇𝐴𝛼 𝑥 = (𝜇𝐴 𝑥 )𝛼

 If α < 1, then it is called dilation

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Basic fuzzy set operations: Cartesian product
Caretsian Product (𝐴 × 𝐵): 𝜇𝐴×𝐵 𝑥, 𝑦 = min(𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑦 )

Example:
𝐴 𝑥 = {(𝑥1 , 0.2), (𝑥2 , 0.3), (𝑥3 , 0.5), (𝑥4 , 0.6)}
𝐵 𝑦 = { 𝑦1 , 0.8 , 𝑦2 , 0.6 , 𝑦3 , 0.3 }

A × 𝐵 = min 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑦 =

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Properties of fuzzy sets
Commutativity :

𝐴∩𝐵 = 𝐵∩𝐴
𝐴∪B = 𝐵∪A
Associativity :

𝐴 ∪ (𝐵 ∪ 𝐶) = (𝐴 ∪ 𝐵) ∪ 𝐶
𝐴 ∩ (𝐵 ∩ 𝐶) = (𝐴 ∩ 𝐵) ∩ 𝐶
Distributivity :

𝐴 ∪ (𝐵 ∩ 𝐶) = (𝐴 ∪ 𝐵) ∩ (𝐴 ∪ 𝐶)
𝐴 ∩ (𝐵 ∪ 𝐶) = (𝐴 ∩ 𝐵) ∪ (𝐴 ∩ 𝐶)

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Properties of fuzzy sets
Idempotence :
𝐴 ∪ 𝐴 = 𝐴
𝐴 ∩ 𝐴 =∅;
𝐴 ∪ ∅; = 𝐴
𝐴 ∩∅; = ∅;
Transitivity :
If 𝐴 ⊆ 𝐵; 𝐵 ⊆ 𝐶 then 𝐴 ⊆ 𝐶
Involution :
(𝐴𝑐 )𝑐 = 𝐴
De Morgan’s law :
(𝐴 ∩ 𝐵)𝑐 = 𝐴𝑐 ∪ 𝐵𝑐
(𝐴 ∪ 𝐵)𝑐 = 𝐴𝑐 ∩ 𝐵𝑐

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Example 1: Fuzzy Set Operations
Let A and B are two fuzzy sets defined over a universe of discourse X with
membership functions 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 and 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 , respectively. Two MFs 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 and
𝜇𝐵 𝑥 are shown graphically.
µA(x)

µB(x)
a1 a2 a3 a4 b1 a1=b2 a2=b3 a4
x x

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Example 1: Plotting two sets on the same graph
Let’s plot the two membership functions on the same graph

µB µA
µ

b1 a1 a2 b4 a3 a4
x
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Example 1: Union and Intersection
The plots of union 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 and intersection 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 are shown in the following.

µB µA

µ
b1 a1 a2 b4 a3 a4
x
 A B ( x)

 A B ( x)
a2 b4
x b1 a1 a2 a3 a4
x

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Example 1: Complementation
The plots of union 𝜇𝐴ҧ 𝑥 of the fuzzy set A is shown in the following.

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Fuzzy set operations: Practice
Consider the following two fuzzy sets A and B defined over a universe of
discourse [0,5] of real numbers with their membership functions
𝑥
𝜇𝐴 𝑥 = and 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 = 2−𝑥
1+𝑥
Determine the membership functions of the following and draw them
graphically.
I. 𝐴ҧ , 𝐵ത
II. 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵
III. 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵
IV. (𝐴 ∪ 𝐵)𝑐
[Hint: Use De’ Morgan law]

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Example 2: A real-life example
Two fuzzy sets A and B with membership functions 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 and 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 , respectively
defined as below.
A = Cold climate with 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 as the MF.
B = Hot climate with 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 as the M.F.

µA µB
1.0

Here, 𝑋 being the

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Example 2: A real-life example
What are the fuzzy sets representing the following?
1. Not cold climate
2. Not hot climate
3. Extreme climate
4. Pleasant climate
Note: Note that ”Not cold climate” ≠ ”Hot climate” and vice-versa.

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Example 2: A real-life example
Answer would be the following.
 Not cold climate
𝐴ҧ with 1 − 𝜇𝐴 𝑥 as the MF.
 Not hot climate
𝐵ത with 1 − 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 as the MF.
 Extreme climate
A ∪ 𝐵 with 𝜇𝐴∪𝐵 𝑥 = max(𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 ) as the MF.
 Pleasant climate
A ∩ 𝐵 with 𝜇𝐴∩𝐵 𝑥 = min(𝜇𝐴 𝑥 , 𝜇𝐵 𝑥 ) as the MF.

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Example 2: A real-life example
The plot of the MFs of A ∪ 𝐵 and A ∩ 𝐵 are shown in the following.

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