Oscillation-Bound Estimation of Perturbations Under Bandler–Kohout Subproduct

The Bandler-Kohout subproduct (BKS) method is one of the two widely acknowledged fuzzy relational inference (FRI) schemes. The previous works related to its stability and robustness mainly concentrated on how the output values were changed with perturbation parameters of input values. However, the works on estimating oscillation bounds of output values with regard to varying limits of input, are lacking. In this study, we investigate the oscillation-bound estimation of perturbations for BKS. First, the BKS output variation scopes are acquired for interval perturbation, where the R -implication, ( S, N )-implication, QL-implication, and t -norm implication are adopted. Second, in allusion to the more sophisticated problem of the fuzzy reasoning chain with BKS, the oscillation bounds of BKS output resulting from input interval perturbation are offered. Third, we construct the upper and lower bounds of BKS output deviation originated in the simple perturbation of the input fuzzy set, in which the situations of one rule and multiple rules are both dissected. Finally, the stable properties of all these BKS strategies are confirmed. It is emphasized that interval perturbation and simple perturbation are more general ways to give expression describing the robustness issue, and the obtained oscillation bounds also deliver more detailed characterization of the output deviation along with the input perturbation. This study further validates the sound properties of the BKS method.