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Evolving fuzzy systems (EFSs) are widely known as a powerful tool for streaming data prediction. In this article, a novel zero-order EFS with a unique belief structure is proposed for data stream classification. Thanks to this new belief structure, the proposed model can handle the interclass overlaps in a natural way and better capture the underlying multimodel structure of data streams in the form of prototypes. Utilizing data-driven soft thresholds, the proposed model self-organizes a set of prototype-based if–then fuzzy belief rules from data streams for classification, and its learning outcomes are practically meaningful. With no requirement of prior knowledge in the problem domain, the proposed model is capable of self-determining the appropriate level of granularity for rule-based construction, while enabling users to specify their preferences on the degree of fineness of its knowledge base. Numerical examples demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed model on a wide range of stationary and nonstationary classification benchmark problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) is a widely used technique to construct a stronger ensemble classifier by combining a set of weaker ones. Zero-order fuzzy inference systems (FISs) are very powerful prototype-based predictive models for classification, offering both great prediction precision and high user interpretability. However, the use of zero-order FISs as base classifiers in AdaBoost has not been explored yet. To bridge the gap, in this article, a novel multiclass fuzzily weighted AdaBoost (FWAdaBoost)-based ensemble system with a self-organizing fuzzy inference system (SOFIS) as the ensemble component is proposed. To better incorporate the SOFIS, FWAdaBoost utilizes the confidence scores produced by the SOFIS in both sample weight updating and ensemble output generation, resulting in more accurate classification boundaries and greater prediction precision. Numerical examples on a wide range of benchmark classification problems demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale (large-area), fine spatial resolution satellite sensor images are valuable data sources for Earth observation while not yet fully exploited by research communities for practical applications. Often, such images exhibit highly complex geometrical structures and spatial patterns, and distinctive characteristics of multiple land-use categories may appear at the same region. Autonomous information extraction from these images is essential in the field of pattern recognition within remote sensing, but this task is extremely challenging due to the spectral and spatial complexity captured in satellite sensor imagery. In this research, a semi-supervised deep rule-based approach for satellite sensor image analysis (SeRBIA) is proposed, where large-scale satellite sensor images are analysed autonomously and classified into detailed land-use categories. Using an ensemble feature descriptor derived from pre-trained AlexNet and VGG-VD-16 models, SeRBIA is capable of learning continuously from both labelled and unlabelled images through self-adaptation without human involvement or intervention. Extensive numerical experiments were conducted on both benchmark datasets and real-world satellite sensor images to comprehensively test the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method. The novel information mining technique developed here can be applied to analyse large-scale satellite sensor images with high accuracy and interpretability, across a wide range of real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel semi-supervised ensemble framework with a cross-checking mechanism is proposed for remote sensing scene classification; • An enhanced self-training hierarchical prototype-based classifier is introduced as the base learner; • A novel pseudo-labelling mechanism is proposed to utilise the multi-granular information mined from data in decision-making; • The proposed ensemble framework can achieve top performance with a reduced requirement for labelled images. Remote sensing scene classification plays a critical role in a wide range of real-world applications. Technically, however, scene classification is an extremely challenging task due to the huge complexity in remotely sensed scenes, and the difficulty in acquiring labelled data for model training such as supervised deep learning. To tackle these issues, a novel semi-supervised ensemble framework is proposed here using the self-training hierarchical prototype-based classifier as the base learner for chunk-by-chunk prediction. The framework has the ability to build a powerful ensemble model from both labelled and unlabelled images with minimum supervision. Different feature descriptors are employed in the proposed ensemble framework to offer multiple independent views of images. Thus, the diversity of base learners is guaranteed for ensemble classification. To further increase the overall accuracy, a novel cross-checking strategy was introduced to enable the base learners to exchange pseudo-labelling information during the self-training process, and maximize the correctness of pseudo-labels assigned to unlabelled images. Extensive numerical experiments on popular benchmark remote sensing scenes demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed ensemble framework, especially where the number of labelled images available is limited. For example, the classification accuracy achieved on the OPTIMAL-31, PatternNet and RSI-CB256 datasets was up to 99.91%, 98. 67% and 99.07% with only 40% of the image sets used as labelled training images, surpassing or at least on par with mainstream benchmark approaches trained with double the number of labelled images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we propose a new approach for remote sensing scene classification by creating an ensemble of the recently introduced massively parallel deep (fuzzy) rule-based (DRB) classifiers trained with different levels of spatial information separately. Each DRB classifier consists of a massively parallel set of human-interpretable, transparent zero-order fuzzy IF…THEN… rules with a prototype-based nature. The DRB classifier can self-organize “from scratch” and self-evolve its structure. By employing the pretrained deep convolution neural network as the feature descriptor, the proposed DRB ensemble is able to exhibit human-level performance through a transparent and parallelizable training process. Numerical examples using benchmark data set demonstrate the superior accuracy of the proposed approach together with human-interpretable fuzzy rules autonomously generated by the DRB classifier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An evolving intelligent system (EIS) is able to self-update its system structure and meta-parameters from streaming data. However, since the majority of EISs are implemented on a single-model architecture, their performances on large-scale, complex data streams are often limited. To address this deficiency, a novel self-organizing fuzzy inference ensemble framework is proposed in this paper. As the base learner of the proposed ensemble system, the self-organizing fuzzy inference system is capable of self-learning a highly transparent predictive model from streaming data on a chunk-by-chunk basis through a human-interpretable process. Very importantly, the base learner can continuously self-adjust its decision boundaries based on the inter-class and intra-class distances between prototypes identified from successive data chunks for higher classification precision. Thanks to its parallel distributed computing architecture, the proposed ensemble framework can achieve great classification precision while maintain high computational efficiency on large-scale problems. Numerical examples based on popular benchmark big data problems demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed approach over the state-of-the-art alternatives in terms of both classification accuracy and computational efficiency. • A novel fuzzy ensemble framework proposed for big streaming data classification. • A novel fuzzy inference system to learn from streaming data chunk-by-chunk. • The base learner to self-calibrate precise decision boundaries from streaming data. • A novel ensemble architecture to build diverse committees with high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pioneering the traditional fuzzy rule-based (FRB) systems, deep rule-based (DRB) classifiers are able to offer both human-level performance and transparent system structure on image classification problems by integrating zero-order fuzzy rule base with a multi-layer image-processing architecture that is typical for deep learning. Nonetheless, it is frequently observed that the inner structure of DRB can become over sophisticated and not interpretable for humans when applied to large-scale, complex problems. To tackle the issue, one feasible solution is to construct a tree structural classification model by aggregating the possibly huge number of prototypes identified from data into a much smaller number of more descriptive and highly abstract ones. Therefore, in this paper, we present a novel hierarchical deep rule-based (H-DRB) approach that is capable of summarizing the less descriptive raw prototypes into highly generalized ones and self-arranging them into a hierarchical prototype-based structure according to their descriptive abilities. By doing so, H-DRB can offer high-level performance and, most importantly, full transparency and human-interpretability on various problems including large-scale ones. The proposed concept and generical principles are verified through numerical experiments based on a wide variety of popular benchmark image sets. Numerical results demonstrate that the promise of H-DRB. • A generic approach for deep rule-based systems to self-organize a multi-layer structure is proposed. • The proposed system can offer higher transparency and human-interpretability for large-scale, complex problems. • The proposed approach can perform highly efficient decision-making with attractive classification precision. • The effectiveness and validity of the proposed approach are demonstrated on a variety of popular benchmark image sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]