Application of the largest Lyapunov exponent and non-linear fractal extrapolation algorithm to short-term load forecasting

Precise short-term load forecasting (STLF) plays a key role in unit commitment, maintenance and economic dispatch problems. Employing a subjective and arbitrary predictive step size is one of the most important factors causing the low forecasting accuracy. To solve this problem, the largest Lyapunov exponent is adopted to estimate the maximal predictive step size so that the step size in the forecasting is no more than this maximal one. In addition, in this paper a seldom used forecasting model, which is based on the non-linear fractal extrapolation (NLFE) algorithm, is considered to develop the accuracy of predictions. The suitability and superiority of the two solutions are illustrated through an application to real load forecasting using New South Wales electricity load data from the Australian National Electricity Market. Meanwhile, three forecasting models: the gray model, the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average approach and the support vector machine method, which received high approval in STLF, are selected to compare with the NLFE algorithm. Comparison results also show that the NLFE model is outstanding, effective, practical and feasible.     

Fuzzy linear regression and its applications to forecasting in uncertain environment

Linear regression has been used for many years in developing mathematical models for application in marketing, management, and sales forecasting. In this paper, two different sales forecasting techniques are discussed. The first technique involves non-fuzzy abstract methods of linear regression and econometrics. A study of the international market sales of cameras, done in 1968 by John Scott Armstrong, utilized these non-fuzzy forecasting techniques. The second sales forecasting technique uses fuzzy linear regression introduced by H. Tanaka, S. Uejima, and K. Asai, in 1980. In this paper, a study of the computer and peripheral equipment sales in the United States is discussed using fuzzy linear regression. Moreover, fuzzy linear regression is applied to forecasting in an uncertain environment. Finally, some possible improvements and suggestions for further study are mentioned.     

一类不分明时间序列的回归预测

研究了一类不分明时间序列的线性回归预测问题,通过模糊数空间中的距离,建立了模糊环境中最小二乘回归模型,证明了回归模型解的存在性和唯一性,并给出了确定模型的模糊参数及检验模型拟合度的计算公式。     

最佳灰色回归组合模型及其在中国火灾预测中的应用

火灾每年给国家和人民生命财产造成巨大损失.火灾现象具有随机性、模糊性,是个复杂的灰色系统行为.研究火灾发生规律及发展趋势,具有实用价值.为此,首先给出最小二乘估计(LSE)意义下的最佳组合预测模型的定义,并求得组合模型的权的公式和证明权的唯一性.其次,用回归分析方法建立多个回归模型,并按以下三条标准:①回归指数(或相关系数)r大、②系统误差s小、③模型精度p高,选定最佳非线性回归模型;用灰色理论建立多个灰色模型,并按以下三条标准:①后验差比值c小、②小误差概率P大、③预测关联度ξ大,选定最佳灰色模型;再用最小二乘法将最佳回归模型与最佳灰色模型有机地结合起来建立的中国火灾最佳灰色回归组合预测模型.最佳灰色回归组合预测模型综合利用前两者提供的不同的有用信息,改善了单一模型的局限性,提高了模型的预测精度,减少了预测误差,使预测效果更佳.组合模型预测中国年火灾起数处于动态增长过程.     

A hybrid metaheuritic technique developed for hourly load forecasting

Electricity load forecasting has become one of the most functioning tools in energy efficiency and load management and utility companies which has been made very complex due to deregulation. Due to the importance of providing a secure and economic electricty for the consumers, having a reliable and robust enough forecast engine in short‐term load management is very needful. Fuzzy inference system is one of primal branches of Artificial Intelligence techniques which has been widely used for different applications of decision making in complex systems. This paper aims to develop a Fuzzy inference system as a main forecast engine for Short term Load Forecasting (STLF) of a city in Iran. However, the optimization of this platform for this special case remains a basic problem. Hence, to address this issue, the Radial Movement Optimization (RMO) technique is proposed to optimize the whole Fuzzy platform. To support this idea, the accuracy of the proposed model is analyzed using MAPE index and an average error of 1.38% is obtained for the forecast load demand which represents the reliability of the proposed method. Finally, results achieved by this method, demonstrate that an adaptive two‐stage hybrid system consisting of Fuzzy & RMO can be an accurate and robust enough choice for STLF problems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 521–532, 2016     

Forecasting business cycle with chaotic time series based on neural network with weighted fuzzy membership functions

This study presents a forecasting model of cyclical fluctuations of the economy based on the time delay coordinate embedding method. The model uses a neuro-fuzzy network called neural network with weighted fuzzy membership functions (NEWFM). The preprocessed time series of the leading composite index using the time delay coordinate embedding method are used as input data to the NEWFM to forecast the business cycle. A comparative study is conducted using other methods based on wavelet transform and Principal Component Analysis for the performance comparison. The forecasting results are tested using a linear regression analysis to compare the approximation of the input data against the target class, gross domestic product (GDP). The chaos based model captures nonlinear dynamics and interactions within the system, which other two models ignore. The test results demonstrated that chaos based method significantly improved the prediction capability, thereby demonstrating superior performance to the other methods.     

Fuzzy adaptive network in presidential elections

Several scientific forecasting models for presidential elections have been suggested. However, most of these models are based on traditional statistics approaches. Since the system is linguistic, vague, and dynamic in nature, the traditional rigorous mathematical approaches are inappropriate for the modeling of this kind of humanistic system. This paper presents a combined neural fuzzy approach, namely a fuzzy adaptive network, to model and forecast the problem of a presidential election. The fuzzy adaptive network, which is ideally suited for the modeling of vaguely defined humanistic systems, combines the advantages of the representation ability of fuzzy sets and the learning ability of a neural network. To illustrate the approach, experiments were carried out by first formulating the problem, then training the network, and, finally, predicting the election results based on the trained network. The experimental results show that a fuzzy adaptive network is an ideal approach for the modeling and forecasting of national presidential elections.     

A method for solving fuzzy goal programming problems based on MINMAX approach

Narasimhan incorporated fuzzy set theory within goal programming formulation in 1980. Since then numerous research has been carried out in this field. One of the well-known models for solving fuzzy goal programming problems was proposed by Hannan in 1981. In this paper the conventional MINMAX approach in goal programming is applied to solve fuzzy goal programming problems. It is proved that the proposed model is an extension to Hannan model that deals with unbalanced triangular linear membership functions. In addition, it is shown that the new model is equivalent to a model proposed in 1991 by Yang et al. Moreover, a weighted model of the new approach is introduced and is compared with Kim and Whang’s model presented in 1998. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the validity and strengths of the new models.     

基于多目标规划法的模糊线性回归分析

讨论输入、输出均为模糊数,回归系数为实数时的模糊线性回归分析。由于模糊最小二乘线性回归容易受异常值的影响,而最小一乘法能有效地降低回归模型的误差。为此,基于最小一乘法,建立多目标规划模型并将其转化为非线性规划问题进行求解,从而实现模糊线性回归模型的参数估计。最后,结合一个数值实例,验证和比较该方法的合理性和优越性。     

Fuzzy polynomial regression with fuzzy neural networks

Recently, fuzzy linear regression is considered by Mosleh et al. [1]. In this paper, a novel hybrid method based on fuzzy neural network for approximate fuzzy coefficients (parameters) of fuzzy polynomial regression models with fuzzy output and crisp inputs, is presented. Here a neural network is considered as a part of a large field called neural computing or soft computing. Moreover, in order to find the approximate parameters, a simple algorithm from the cost function of the fuzzy neural network is proposed. Finally, we illustrate our approach by some numerical examples.     

A novel two-factor forecasting model for fuzzy time series

The study of fuzzy time series has increasingly attracted much attention due to its salient capabilities of tackling vague and incomplete data. A variety of forecasting models have devoted to improving forecasting accuracy, however, the issue of partitioning intervals has rarely been investigated. Recently, we proposed a novel deterministic forecasting model to eliminate the major overhead of determining the k-order issue in high-order models. This paper presents a continued work with focusing on handling the interval partitioning issue by applying the fuzzy c-means technology, which can take the distribution of data points into account and produce unequal-sized intervals. In addition, the forecasting model is extended to allow process twofactor problems. The accuracy superiority of the proposed model is demonstrated by conducting two empirical experiments and comparison to other existing models. The reliability of the forecasting model is further justified by using a Monte Carlo simulation and box plots. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Evaluation of fuzzy regression models by fuzzy neural network

In this paper, a novel hybrid method based on fuzzy neural network for approximate fuzzy coefficients (parameters) of fuzzy linear and nonlinear regression models with fuzzy output and crisp inputs, is presented. Here a neural network is considered as a part of a large field called neural computing or soft computing. Moreover, in order to find the approximate parameters, a simple algorithm from the cost function of the fuzzy neural network is proposed. Finally, we illustrate our approach by some numerical examples.     

A Mathematical Model for the Growing Sector of the Poultry Industry in England and Wales

This paper deals with the problem of forecasting the population of growing pullets in England and Wales. The term Growing Pullet is used for a hen from birth until it is moved to the laying flock. Quarterly data is available on the number of growing pullets alive, while data is published every month on the number of hens hatched.Previous work in the field of forecasting agricultural populations has been based on Cobweb Theorem considerations and relies on past prices and expectations of future prices. However, given the available data and non-price relationships that take place in the growing sector, it is possible to build a non-price model.The approach followed is to start with a naive regression model estimated using ordinary least squares. The model does not conform to prior expectations of regression coefficients and has to be re-estimated using Quadratic Programming. This provides new ideas for a further model that incorporates adaptive expectations and that is updated using a Box and Jenkins time series approach.     

Quadratic interval innovation diffusion models for new product sales forecasting

An appropriate sales forecasting method is vital to the success of a business firm. The logistic model and the Gompertz model are usually adopted to forecast the growth trends and the potential market volume of innovative products. All of these models rely on statistics to explain the relationships between dependent and independent variables, and use crisp parameters. However, fuzzy relationships are more appropriate for describing the relationships between dependent and independent variables; these relationships require less data than traditional models to generate reasonable estimates of parameters. Therefore, we have combined fuzzy regression with the logistic and Gompertz models to develop a quadratic-interval Gompertz model and a quadratic-interval logistic model, and we applied the models to three cases. Our practical application of the two models shows that they are appropriate tools that can reveal the best and worst possible sales volume outcomes.     

Electric load forecasting by support vector model

Accurately electric load forecasting has become the most important management goal, however, electric load often presents nonlinear data patterns. Therefore, a rigid forecasting approach with strong general nonlinear mapping capabilities is essential. Support vector regression (SVR) applies the structural risk minimization principle to minimize an upper bound of the generalization errors, rather than minimizing the training errors which are used by ANNs. The purpose of this paper is to present a SVR model with immune algorithm (IA) to forecast the electric loads, IA is applied to the parameter determine of SVR model. The empirical results indicate that the SVR model with IA (SVRIA) results in better forecasting performance than the other methods, namely SVMG, regression model, and ANN model.     

模糊线性回归模型的约束最小二乘估计

自Tanaka等1982年提出模糊回归概念以来,该问题已得到广泛的研究。作为主要估计方法之一的模糊最小二乘估计以其与统计最小二乘估计的密切联系更受到人们的重视。本文依据适当定义的两个模糊数之间的距离,提出了模糊线性回归模型的一个约束最小二乘估计方法,该方法不仅能使估计的模糊参数的宽度具有非负性而且估计的模糊参数的中心线与传统的最小二乘估计相一致。最后,通过数值例子说明了所提方法的具体应用。     

Bayesian forecasting with the Holt–Winters model

Exponential smoothing methods are widely used as forecasting techniques in inventory systems and business planning, where reliable prediction intervals are also required for a large number of series. This paper describes a Bayesian forecasting approach based on the Holt–Winters model, which allows obtaining accurate prediction intervals. We show how to build them incorporating the uncertainty due to the smoothing unknowns using a linear heteroscedastic model. That linear formulation simplifies obtaining the posterior distribution on the unknowns; a random sample from such posterior, which is not analytical, is provided using an acceptance sampling procedure and a Monte Carlo approach gives the predictive distributions. On the basis of this scheme, point-wise forecasts and prediction intervals are obtained. The accuracy of the proposed Bayesian forecasting approach for building prediction intervals is tested using the 3003 time series from the M3-competition.     

Parametric regression analysis of imprecise and uncertain data in the fuzzy belief function framework

In this paper, parametric regression analyses including both linear and nonlinear regressions are investigated in the case of imprecise and uncertain data, represented by a fuzzy belief function. The parameters in both the linear and nonlinear regression models are estimated using the fuzzy evidential EM algorithm, a straightforward fuzzy version of the evidential EM algorithm. The nonlinear regression model is derived by introducing a kernel function into the proposed linear regression model. An unreliable sensor experiment is designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed linear and nonlinear parametric regression methods, called parametric evidential regression (PEVREG) models. The experimental results demonstrate the high prediction accuracy of the PEVREG models in regressions with crisp inputs and a fuzzy belief function as output.