Preliminary study on wilcoxon learning machines

As is well known in statistics, the resulting linear regressors by using the rank-based Wilcoxon approach to linear regression problems are usually robust against (or insensitive to) outliers. This motivates us to introduce in this paper the Wilcoxon approach to the area of machine learning. Specifically, we investigate four new learning machines, namely Wilcoxon neural network (WNN), Wilcoxon generalized radial basis function network (WGRBFN), Wilcoxon fuzzy neural network (WFNN), and kernel-based Wilcoxon regressor (KWR). These provide alternative learning machines when faced with general nonlinear learning problems. Simple weights updating rules based on gradient descent will be derived. Some numerical examples will be provided to compare the robustness against outliers for various learning machines. Simulation results show that the Wilcoxon learning machines proposed in this paper have good robustness against outliers. We firmly believe that the Wilcoxon approach will provide a promising methodology for many machine learning problems.

Robust and fast learning for fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controllers

In this paper, the online learning capability and the robust property for the learning algorithms of cerebellar model articulation controllers (CMAC) are discussed. Both the traditional CMAC and fuzzy CMAC are considered. In the study, we find a way of embeding the idea of M-estimators into the CMAC learning algorithms to provide the robust property against outliers existing in training data. An annealing schedule is also adopted for the learning constant to fulfill robust learning. In the study, we also extend our previous work of adopting the credit assignment idea into CMAC learning to provide fast learning for fuzzy CMAC. From demonstrated examples, it is clearly evident that the proposed algorithm indeed has faster and more robust learning. In our study, we then employ the proposed CMAC for an online learning control scheme used in the literature. In the implementation, we also propose to use a tuning parameter instead of a fixed constant to achieve both online learning and fine-tuning effects. The simulation results indeed show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.