1. Introduction
Naturally, we face several critical situations that have vagueness and uncertainty. In today’s fast-paced life, we need methods and techniques through which we manage this uncertainty in a better way. Mathematicians have shown interest in overcoming these situations and have presented several theories, such as fuzzy set (FS) theory, IFS theory, SS theory, RS theory, etc.
Zadeh [
1] built a framework of FSs to manage uncertainty, vagueness and impreciseness. For several research purposes, FSs are useful, ingenious and innovative sets. The FSs are very helpful sets to solve real world problems due to qualitative expressions. Each element of FS is described with its degree of membership. However, often, we face many situations involving vagueness and impreciseness that can not be controlled by a FS due to its degree of membership only. For example, a doctor wants to diagnose a disease in a patient but the disease can not be diagnosed by the membership degree only. To manage such situations, Attanasov presented an IFS [
2], which is extension of a FS, and each element of an IFS is described with a membership degree, non-membership degree and hesitant degree. IFSs are very useful sets, and applications of IFSs in several fields show their importance. The IFSs have many applications in market prediction, the electoral system, career determination, medical diagnosis and machine learning [
3]. The IFSs have many operations and properties that help to manage impreciseness and uncertainty better than FSs.
Many new models, such as FS (1965), RS (1982) and IFS (1986), have been introduced to control uncertainty, which is an inherent characteristic of modern databases. All of these models have their own algebraic properties and operations but these models lack a sufficient number of parameters to control uncertainty. To solve this problem, Molodtsov (1999) [
4] introduced the SS, which is an untraditional approach to deal with uncertainty. SSs have an adequate number of parameters and many operations. SSs are also helpful in decision making, data clustering, parameter reduction and data to deal with incompleteness. Many extensions of SSs have been introduced, such as vague SS [
5], fuzzy SS (FSS) [
6], IF soft set (IFSS) [
7], soft RS (SRS) [
8], trapezoidal FSS [
9], fuzzy RS (FRS), etc. Sang et al. [
10] presented an intuitionistic fuzzy rough set (IFRS) model to deal with the unnaturalness of FRS.
Pawlak (1982) [
11] invented the RS, which is an untraditional approach to deal with inconsistent, imprecise and incomplete knowledge. The RS theory can be divided into two major parts as a simple information model. The first part concerns the rules and concepts formed by the classification of the relational database, and the second part concerns the innovative knowledge discovered by the equivalence relation and approximation of the target. The RS theory is a better theory than the FS theory because the FS has a degree that is uncertain and the RS establishes two precise boundary lines for a description of imprecise concepts [
12]. The RS theory is a useful tool in the intelligent information processing field. Many extensions of RS models have been developed recently. Combining RS theory with existing theories, many generalizations have been introduced, such as probabilistic RSs [
13], a decision theoretic RS model, a game theoretic RS model [
14], etc. The RS model has rich applications in several fields of modern research. In theoretical research, the RS model describes algebraic structures with abstract algebra [
15], rough approximation topology [
16] and a combination of a soft computing method with RS theory [
17]. In application research, the RS model is helpful in medical diagnosis [
18], image processing [
19], intelligent analysis [
20], E-mail filtering [
21], etc.
The multigranulation rough set (MGRS) is a very helpful technique for the description of problem solving. In the MGRS, multiple relations are used, which is advantageous as a collective decision based on multiple experts’ opinions is wiser than a single expert’s opinion. Granular computing is a very useful method to make better decisions in complicated real world problems nowadays. In 2010, Qian [
22] introduced an extension of the RS model in terms of the MGRS model for the first time. Comparing with the classical RS model, the MGRS model is proposed, and the resulting sets are smaller in lower approximation sets and bigger in upper approximation sets. Qian [
23] introduced two types of MGRS models: optimistic MGRS (OMGRS) and pessimistic MGRS (PMGRS). Covering the MGRS [
24] is useful in dealing with data sets that involve overlapping and a large amount of knowledge. After that, MGRSs with generalized relations [
25], order relations [
26] and fuzzy compatible relations [
27] have been discussed by relaxing the condition of equivalence relations. Different researchers modified MGRS models to manage different data set needs. According to the nature of problems in several fields, the MGRS showed its significance and importance [
28,
29,
30,
31,
32]. The risk attitudes by OMGRS and PMGRS models based on multiple relations have been discussed by Qian et al. [
33,
34]. Huang et al. [
35] built a suitable framework of a combination of MGRS with an IFS, which was named the IFMGRS model. Pang et al. [
36] described the combination with three-way decision making and proposed a multi-criteria decision-making model. Sun and Ma [
37] presented a MGRS model in connection with two universes. Tan et al. [
38] combined a MGRS model and a granularity selection algorithm to make a selective data set approximation. Xu et al. [
39] built a framework of a combination of the RS model, MGRS model and FRS model in connection with granular computing, and this combination is said to be a MGFRS. Shabir et al. [
40] presented a MGRS model based on multi soft relations. Recently, the extension of the MGRS in terms of the FS has been presented by Shabir et al., and is called the OMFGRS. After that, Shabir et al. [
41,
42,
43] presented an optimistic multigranulation intuitionistic fuzzy rough set. They discussed the basic properties of the OMIFGRS in [
41]. Now, we discuss the PMGRS in terms of the IFS based on soft relations.
In our realistic world, multiple universes of objects are needed in several practical problems, such as medication and disease symptoms used in disease diagnostics. Since Pawlak discussed the RS model using a single universe, to solve the above problem about multiple universes of objects, Yan et al. and Liu discussed the RS model using dual universes. They presented a comparative study of the RS model based on single universe and dual universes. The RS model based on dual universes is very useful in dealing with multi-granulation information. Qian et al. extended the RS model based on dual universes and presented the MGRS to approximate a set based on a finite number of relations.
In many fields, the contribution of MGRS is significant, such as in conflict analysis problems, in medical diagnostics, in decision-making problems, in steam turbine defect diagnostic models, in granulation selection and in decision making with MGRS based on dual universes. Shabir et al. discussed the RS model based on dual universes and the MGRS based on multiple universes. They investigated a pessimistic MGRS of a FS in terms of soft relations. Since the FS discusses the degree of membership only, but we have to face many problems in the real world that have uncertainty and vagueness, the FS is not applicable in many complicated situations. As a result of this problem, the IFS is more useful in dealing with critical situations due to its membership degree and non-membership degree. This is the main idea for the motivation of our research work.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 presents the FS, SS, RS, IFS, IFSS, MGRS and soft binary relations. In
Section 3, a pessimistic MGRS of an IFS based on two soft binary relations over dual universes and its properties are given.
Section 4 presents the PMGIFRS over dual universes and their algebraic properties with examples. In
Section 5, a decision-making algorithm of this proposed model with a practical example is presented.
Section 6 presents a comparative study of our proposed model and other existing theories. Finally, the conclusion of our research work is described in
Section 7.
2. Preliminaries and Basic Concepts
This section presents some basic notions about the RS, IFS, SS, MGRS, soft binary relation and IFSS. Throughout this paper, and represent two non-empty finite sets unless stated otherwise.
Definition 1 ([
2]).
Let W be a non-empty universe. An IFS T in the universe W is an object having the form , where and satisfying for all . The values and are called the degree of membership and degree of non-membership of to T, respectively. The number is called the degree of hesitancy of to T. The collection of all IFSs in W is denoted by . In the remaining paper, we shall write an IFS by instead of . Let and be two IFSs in W. Then, if and only if and for all . Two IFSs T and are said to be equal if and only if and . Definition 2 ([
2]).
The union and intersection of two IFSs T and in W are denoted and defined by and , where , , for all . Next, we define two special types of IFSs as:
The IF universe set and IF empty set , where and for all . The complement of an IFS is denoted and defined as .
For a fixed
, the pair
is called the intuitionistic fuzzy value (IFV) or intuitionistic fuzzy number (IFN). In order to define the order between two IFNs, Chen and Tan [
44] introduced the score function as
and Hong and Choi [
45] defined the accuracy function as
, where
. Xu [
39] used both the score and accuracy functions to define the order relation between any pair
of IFVS as given below:
- (a)
If , then x
- (b)
If , then
- (1)
If , then
- (2)
If , then .
Definition 3 ([
11]).
Let λ be an equivalence relation on a universe W. For any , the Pawlak lower and upper approximations of P with respect to λ are defined bywhere is the equivalence class of w with respect to λ. The set is the boundary region of . If , then P is defineable (exact); otherwise, P is rough with respect to λ. Qian et al. [
23] extended the Pawlak rough set model to the MGRS model, where the set approximations are defined by using multi-equivalence relations on a universe.
Definition 4 ([
23]).
Let be m equivalence relations on a universe W. For any , the Pawlak lower and upper approximations of P are defined bywhere is the equivalence class of w with respect to . Definition 5 ([
46]).
A pair is called a SS over W if is a mapping given by , where A is a subset of E (the set of parameters) and is the power set of W. Thus, is a subset of W for all . Hence, a SS over W is a parametrized collection of subsets of W. Definition 6 ([
47]).
Let be a SS over . Then, is called a soft binary relation on . In fact, is a parameterized collection of binary relations on ; that is, we have a binary relation on for each parameter . Li et al. [
48] presented the generalization of soft binary relation from
to
as follows.
Definition 7 ([
48]).
A soft binary relation from to is a SS over ; that is, , where A is a subset of the set of parameters E.Of course, is a parameterized collection of binary relations from to . That is, for each , we have a binary relation from to .
Definition 8 ([
7]).
A pair is called an IFSS over W if λ is a mapping given by and A is a subset of E (the set of parameters). Thus, is an IFS in W for all . Hence, an IFSS over W is a parametrized collection of IF sets in W. Definition 9 ([
7]).
For two IFSSs and over a common universe W, we say that is an IF soft subset of if , and is an IF subset of for all . Two IFSSs and over a common universe W are said to be IF soft equal if is an IF soft subset of and is an IF soft subset of . The union of two IFSSs and over the common universe W is the IFSS , where for all . The intersection of two IFSSs and over the common universe W is the IFSS , where for all . Definition 10 ([
49]).
Let be a soft binary relation from to and be an IFS in . Then, the lower approximation and upper approximation of with respect to aftersets are defined as follows: andwhere and is called the afterset of for and . indicates the degree to which definitely has the property e;
indicates the degree to which probably does not have the property e;
indicates the degree to which probably has the property e;
indicates the degree to which definitely does not have the property e.
Definition 11 ([
49]).
Let be a soft binary relation from to and be an IFS in . Then, the lower approximation and upper approximation of with respect to foresets are defined as follows:andwhere and is called the foreset of for and . Ofcourse, , and , .
Theorem 1 ([
49]).
Let be a soft binary relation from to ; that is, . For any IFS, , and of , the following are true: - (1)
If then ;
- (2)
If then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
;
- (7)
if ;
- (8)
if ;
- (9)
if ;
- (10)
if ;
- (11)
if .
Proof. This is proved in [
49]. □
Theorem 2 ([
49]).
Let be a soft binary relation from to ; that is, . For any IFS, , and of , the following are true: - (1)
If then ;
- (2)
If then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
;
- (7)
if ;
- (8)
if ;
- (9)
if ;
- (10)
if ;
- (11)
.
Proof. This is proved in [
49]. □
3. Roughness of an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set by Two Soft Relations
In this section, the pessimistic multigranulation roughness of an IFS by two soft binary relations from to has been discussed. We approximate an IFS of universe in universe and an IFS of in by using aftersets and foresets of soft binary relations, respectively. In this way, we obtain two IFSSs corresponding to IFSs in . We also discuss some properties of these approximations.
Definition 12. Let and be two non-empty sets, and be two soft binary relations from to and be an IFS in . Then, the pessimistic multigranulation lower approximation and the pessimistic multigranulation upper approximation of are IF soft sets over and are defined as:andfor all , where and are called the aftersets of for and . Obviously, and are two IFS soft sets over . In Definition 12, two soft binary relations from to are given and an IFS in can be approximated as lower and upper approximations with respect to the aftersets. The resulting sets are two pairs of IF soft sets.
Definition 13. Let and be two non-empty sets, and be two soft binary relations from to and be an IFS in . Then, the pessimistic multigranulation lower approximation and the pessimistic multigranulation upper approximation of are IF soft sets over and are defined as:andfor all where and are called the foresets of for and . Obviously, and are two IFS soft sets over . In Definition 13, two soft binary relations from to are given and an IFS in can be approximated as lower and upper approximations with respect to the foresets. The resulting sets are two pairs of IF soft sets.
Of course, , and , .
The following example explains the above definitions.
Example 1. Let and , and and be two soft binary relations from to defined by
Then, their aftersets and foresets are
- (1)
Define
as given in
Table 1:
The pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations of
with respect to the aftersets are given in
Table 2.
- (2)
Define
as given in
Table 3:
The pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations of
with respect to the foresets are given in
Table 4.
Table 2 shows the pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations of IFS
with respect to the aftersets by using Definition 12.
Table 4 shows the pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations of IFS
with respect to the foresets by using Definition 13.
Proposition 1. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following hold with respect to the after sets.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. (1) Let . Then, .
Similarly, let . Then, .
Hence, .
(2) Let . Then, .
Similarly, let . Then, .
Hence, . □
For the converse, we have the following example.
Example 2. (Continued from Example 1). According to Example 1, we have the following: Proposition 2. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following hold with respect to the foresets.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 1. □
Proposition 3. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following hold.
- (1)
for all ;
- (2)
if and ;
- (3)
if and ;
- (4)
for all .
Proof. (1) Let and be the universal set of . If , then and .
If , then ,
and .
(2) Let and be the universal set of . If , then ,
and .
(3) Let and be the universal set of . If , then ,
and .
(4) The properties can be proved similarly to (3). □
Proposition 4. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following holds.
- (1)
for all ;
- (2)
for all , if and ;
- (3)
for all , if and ;
- (4)
for all .
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 3. □
Proposition 5. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following properties hold.
- (1)
If , then ;
- (2)
If , then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
.
Proof. (1) Since , and . Thus, ,
and .
(2) This can be proved similar to (1).
(3) Let . If, then
and .
If,
then
.
In addition,
.
This shows that .
(4) This can be proved similar to (3).
(5) Let . If, then
and .
If,
then
.
In addition,
.
This shows that .
(6) This can be proved similar to (5). □
For the converses of part (4) and (6), we have the following example.
Example 3. Let and , and and be soft binary relations from to defined by
Then, their aftersets are
- (1)
Define
as given in
Table 5:
- (2)
Define
as given in
Table 6:
- (3)
The pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations of
,
and
with respect to the aftersets are given in
Table 9.
From
Table 9, we have the following
Proposition 6. Let be two soft relations from to ; that is, and and . Then, the following properties hold.
- (1)
If , then ;
- (2)
If , then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 5. □
4. Roughness of an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set over Two Universes by Multi Soft Relations
In this Section, we discuss the pessimistic multigranulation roughness of an IFS by multi soft binary relations from to and approximate an IFS of universe in universe and an IFS in by using aftersets and foresets of soft binary relations, respectively. In this way, we obtain two intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets corresponding to IFSs in . We also study some properties of these approximations.
Definition 14. Let and be two non-empty finite universes and ϕ be a family of soft binary relations from to . Then, we say is the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes.
Definition 15. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and , where , and be an IFS in . Then, the pessimistic multigranulation lower approximation and the pessimistic multigranulation upper approximation of are IF soft sets over with respect to the aftersets of soft relations , and are defined as:andwhere are called the aftersets of for and . Obviously, and are two IFS soft sets over . Definition 16. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and , where , and be an IFS in . Then, the pessimistic multigranulation lower approximation and the pessimistic multigranulation upper approximation of are IF soft sets over with respect to the foresets of soft relations , and are defined as:andwhere are called the foresets of for and . Obviously, and are two IFS soft sets over . Moreover, and .
Proposition 7. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and be an IFS in . Then, the following properties for hold.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 1. □
Proposition 8. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and be an IFS in . Then, the following properties for hold.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 2. □
Proposition 9. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and . Then, the following properties with respect to the aftersets hold.
- (1)
for all ;
- (2)
if , and for some ;
- (3)
if and , for some ;
for all .
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 3. □
Proposition 10. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and . Then, the following properties with respect to the foresets hold.
- (1)
for all ;
- (2)
if and for some ;
- (3)
if and , for some ;
- (4)
for all .
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 4. □
Proposition 11. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and . Then, the following properties for with respect to the aftersets hold.
- (1)
If , then ;
- (2)
If , then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 5. □
Proposition 12. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and . Then, the following properties for with respect to the foresets hold.
- (1)
If , then ;
- (2)
If , then ;
- (3)
;
- (4)
;
- (5)
;
- (6)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 6. □
Proposition 13. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and , and . Then, the following properties with respect to the aftersets hold.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 5. □
Proposition 14. Let be the multigranulation generalized soft approximation space over two universes and and , and . Then, the following properties with respect to the foresets hold.
- (1)
;
- (2)
.
Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Proposition 6. □
5. Application in Decision-Making Problem
Data analysis is always needed to make a perception about any decision. Decision making is a good technique to study data analysis. Decision making is the process used to choose better alternatives from aspirants. A single expert’s opinion is no longer preferable because a collective decision based on multiple expert’ opinions is more effective. Shabir et al. [
40] presented a decision-making algorithm using crisp sets. Jamal and Shabir [
50] proposed a useful decision-making algorithm with the help of an OMGFRS model in terms of soft relations. The OMGIFRS model [
41] is the extension of Jamal’s OMGFRS model and corresponds to the decision-making method in terms of multi soft relations. In this paper, we present a suitable decision-making algorithm based on our proposed PMGIFRS model.
The lower and upper approximations are the two subsets of a universe most close to being approximated. We obtain two corresponding values and with respect to the afterset of the decision alternative by the IF soft lower and upper approximations of an IF .
We present two algorithms for our proposed model here.
Algorithm 1 is presented with respect to the aftersets for the decision-making problem in the following.
Algorithm 1 Respect to the aftersets for the decision-making problem |
- (1)
Compute the pessimistic multigranulation lower IF soft set approximation and pessimistic multigranulation upper IF soft set approximation of an IF set with respect to the aftersets. - (2)
Compute the score values for each of the entries of the and and denote them by and for all . - (3)
Compute the aggregated score and . - (4)
Compute . - (5)
The best decision is . - (6)
If k has more than one value, say, , then we calculate the accuracy values and for only those for which are equal. - (7)
Compute for . - (8)
If , then we select - (9)
If , then select any one of and .
|
Algorithm 2 is presented with respect to the foresets for the decision-making problem in the following.
Now, the following example shows the decision-making approach step by step. This example discusses the decision-making algorithm to make wiser decisions for a coach.
Algorithm 2 Respect to the foresets for the decision-making problem |
- (1)
Compute the pessimistic multigranulation lower IF soft set approximation and upper multigranulation IF soft set approximation of an IF set with respect to the foresets. - (2)
Compute the score values for each of the entries of the and and denote them by and for all . - (3)
Compute the aggregated score and . - (4)
Compute . - (5)
The best decision is . - (6)
If k has more than one value, say, , then we calculate the accuracy values and for only those for which are equal. - (7)
Compute for . - (8)
If , then we select - (9)
If , then select any one of and .
|
Example 4. Suppose that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) wants to select a head coach and that there are 10 short-listed applicants, who are categorized in two groups: domestic and foreign. The set represents the applicants of the domestic group and represents the applicants of the foreign group. Let , where {e = batting experience, e = bowling experience, e = managerial expertise} be the set of parameters. Let two different teams of interviewers analyze and compare these applicants for their competence.
We have
, which represents a comparison of the first-interviewer team defined by
where
compares the batting experience of applicants,
compares the bowling experience of applicants and
compares the managerial expertise of applicants.
Similarly,
represents a comparison of the second-interviewer team defined by
where
compares the batting experience of applicants,
compares the bowling experience of applicants and
compares the managerial expertise of applicants.
From these comparisons, we obtain two soft relations from
to
. Now, the aftersets
where
represents all those applicants of the domestic group whose batting experience is equal to
represents all those applicants of the domestic group whose bowling experience is equal to
and
represents all those applicants of the domestic group whose managerial expertise is equal to
. In addition, foresets
where
represents all those applicants of the foreign group whose batting experience is equal to
,
represents all those applicants of the foreign group whose bowling experience is equal to
and
represents all those applicants of the foreign group whose managerial expertise is equal to
.
Therefore, the pessimistic multigranulation lower and upper approximations (with respect to the aftersets, as well as with respect to the foresets) are
(given in
Table 10)
(given in
Table 11), where
Table 10 shows the exact degree of the competency of the applicant
to
T in their batting experience, bowling experience and managerial expertise.
Table 11 shows the possible degree of competency of applicant
to
T in their batting experience, bowling experience and managerial expertise.
It is shown in
Table 12 that
is the maximum, so PCB will select applicant
.
(given in
Table 13)
(given in
Table 14), where
Table 13 shows the exact degree of the competency of the applicant
to
in their batting experience, bowling experience and managerial expertise.
Table 14 shows the possible degree of competency of applicant
to
in their batting experience, bowling experience and managerial expertise.
It is shown in
Table 15 that
is the maximum, so PCB will select applicant
.