Granular Models: Design Insights and Development Practices

In contrast to numeric models, granular models produce results coming in a form of some information granules. Owing to the granularity of information these constructs dwell upon, such models become highly transparent and interpretable as well as operationally effective. Given also the fact that information granules come with a clearly defined semantics, granular models are often referred to as linguistic models. The crux of the design of the linguistic models studied in this paper exhibits two important features. First, the model is constructed on a basis of information granules which are assembled in the form of a web of associations between the granules formed in the output and input spaces. Given the semantics of information granules, we envision that a blueprint of the granular model can be formed effortlessly and with a very limited computing overhead. Second, the interpretability of the model is retained as the entire construct dwells on the conceptual entities of a well-defined semantics. The granulation of available data is accomplished by a carefully designed mechanism of fuzzy clustering which takes into consideration specific problem-driven requirements expressed by the designer at the time of the conceptualization of the model. We elaborate on a so-called context – based (conditional) Fuzzy C-Means (cond-FCM, for brief) to demonstrate how the fuzzy clustering is engaged in the design process. The clusters formed in the input space become induced (implied) by the context fuzzy sets predefined in the output space. The context fuzzy sets are defined in advance by the designer of the model so this design facet provides an active way of forming the model and in this manner becomes instrumental in the determination of a perspective at which a certain phenomenon is to be captured and modeled. This stands in a sharp contrast with most modeling approaches where the development is somewhat passive by being predominantly based on the existing data. The linkages between the fuzzy clusters induced by the given context fuzzy set in the output space are combined by forming a blueprint of the overall granular DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-324-1.ch010