On relationship among h value, membership function, and spread in fuzzy linear regression using shape-preserving operations

Fuzzy regression, a nonparametric method, can be quite useful in estimating the relationships among variables where the available data are very limited and imprecise. It can also serve as a sound methodology that can be applied to a variety of management and engineering problems where variables are interacting in an uncertain, qualitative, and fuzzy way. A close examination of the fuzzy regression algorithm reveals that the resulting possibility distribution of fuzzy parameters, which makes this technique attractive in a fuzzy environment, is dependent upon an h parameter value. The h value, which is between 0 and 1, is referred to as the degree of fit of the estimated fuzzy linear model to the given data, and is subjectively selected by a decision maker (DM) as an input to the model. The selection of a proper value of h is important in fuzzy regression, because it determines the range of the posibility ditributions of the fuzzy parameters. In this paper, we discuss the interdependent relationship among the h value, membership function shape, and the spreads of fuzzy parameters in fuzzy linear regression with fuzzy input-output using shape-preserving operations.