MEMBERSHIP FUNCTIONS

Dr. Zaheeruddin
Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering & Technology
Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University)
New Delhi, India

Email: zaheeruddin@jmi.ac.in
Mobile: 9910170032
 Membership Functions
§ The membership function of a fuzzy set is a generalization of
characteristic function in classical sets.
§ In fuzzy logic, it represents the degree of truth as an extension
of valuation.
§ Degrees of truth are often confused with probabilities,
although they are conceptually distinct, because fuzzy truth
represents membership in vaguely defined sets, not likelihood
of some event or condition.
§ Membership functions were introduced by Zadeh in the first
paper on fuzzy sets (1965).
Characteristic Function (Set as a function)
l So we can now define a special function (called
Characteristic Function) to represent the Set. This function
f from A to B (f : A àB) assigns to each element a of A, a
unique element f (a) in B (i.e., either ‘0’ or ‘1’).

l Let X be the universe of discourse and A is any set. So

each element x of A has its membership value from
X:®{0,1}. It is conventionally denoted as
1, if xÎA
fA(x): X à {0,1}, where fA(x) =
0, if xÏA
 Membership Function
l In fuzzy sets, Each element partially belongs to the set.
l A fuzzy set is defined by a functions that maps objects in
a domain of concern into their membership value in a set.
Such a function is called the membership function.
l In other words, we can say that membership function is a
graphical description that expresses how the transition
from one to another takes place.
l The members of a fuzzy set are members to some
degree, known as a membership grade or degree of
membership.
 Membership Function
l The partial belongingness is expressed by the
membership function of the fuzzy set.
l Let X be the universe of discourse and A is any fuzzy
set. So each element x of A has its membership value
from U:®[0,1]. It is denoted as
µA(x):X à [0,1],
where µA(x) is a grade (degree) of membership of x in
set A.
µA(x) = 1, if x is totally in A;
µA(x) = 0, if x is not in A;
0 < µA(x) < 1, if x is partly in A
Note : since {0,1}Î[0,1]
all crisp sets are fuzzy sets
 Fuzzy Sets

Sets with fuzzy boundaries

A = Set of tall people > 5’10”

Crisp set A Fuzzy set A

1.0 1.0
0.9
Membership
0.5
function

5’10’’ Heights 5’10’’ 6’2’’ Heights

Classical tall men example.
l Crisp and fuzzy sets of tall men
 Fuzzy Sets
Formal definition:
A fuzzy set A in X is expressed as a set of ordered pairs:

A = {( x, µ A ( x )) | x Î X , µ A ( x ) Î [0,1]}
Membership Universe or
Fuzzy set
function universe of discourse
(MF)

A fuzzy set is totally characterized by a

membership function (MF).
 Alternative Notation: Fuzzy Sets

A fuzzy set A can be alternatively denoted as follows:

X is discrete
A= åµ
xi ÎX
A ( xi ) / xi

X is continuous A = ò µ A( x) / x
X

Note that S and integral signs stand for the union of

membership grades; “/” stands for a marker and does
not imply division.
 Alternative Notation: Fuzzy Sets
For the member, x, of a discrete set with membership µ we
use the notation µ/x . In other words, x is a member of the
set to degree µ. Discrete sets are written as:
A = µ1/x1 + µ2/x2 + .......... + µn/xn

where x1, x2....xn are members of the set A and µ1, µ2, ....,
µn are their degrees of membership. A continuous fuzzy
set A is written as:
Fuzzy (sub-)sets: Membership Functions

For the sake of convenience, usually a fuzzy set

is denoted as:
A = µA(xi)/xi + …………. + µA(xn)/xn
that belongs to a finite universe of discourse:
Where µA(xi)/xi (a singleton) is a pair “grade
of membership element”.
 Types of Membership Functions
The most popular membership functions used in fuzzy logic
are:
1) Triangular Membership function
2) Trapezoidal MF
3) Gaussian MF
4) Generalized bell MF
5) Sigmoid membership function
Figure: Various type of Fuzzy membership functions
 1. Triangular Membership function
§ Let a, b and c represent the x coordinates of the three vertices
of µA(x) in a fuzzy set A.
§ a is the lower boundary and c is the upper boundary where
membership degree is zero
§ b is the centre where membership is 1

Figure: Triangular membership function

2. Trapezoidal membership function:
Let a, b, c and d represents the x coordinates of the
membership function. then

Figure: Trapezoidal membership function

 3. Gaussian membership function:
The Gaussian membership function is usually represented as
Gaussian(x: c, s) where c, s represents the mean and standard
deviation.

Here c represents centre, s represents width and m represents

fuzzification factor.

Figure: Different shapes of Gaussian MFs with different values of s and m.

 Generalized Bell membership function:
A generalized bell membership function has three parameters: a –
responsible for its width, c – responsible for its center and b –
responsible for its slopes. Mathematically,

Figure: Generalized Bell Shaped membership function

 Effect of different parameters on the shape of membership function

Figure: Different shapes of Gaussian MFs with different values of s and m.

 Sigmoid Membership function
A sigmoidal membership function has two parameters: a
responsible for its slope at the crossover point x = c. The
membership function of the sigmoid function can be
represented as Sigmf (x: a, c) and it is

Figure 3.6: A general structures of sigmoid MF.

 Sigmoid Membership function
§ A sigmoidal MF is inherently open right or left and thus,
it is appropriate for representing concepts such as “very
large” or “very negative”.
§ Sigmoidal MF mostly used as activation function of
artificial neural networks (NN).
§ A NN should synthesize a close MF in order to simulate
the behavior of a fuzzy inference system.
Membership Function (MF) Formulation