Generalized fuzzy rough sets based on fuzzy coverings

This paper further studies the fuzzy rough sets based on fuzzy coverings. We first present the notions of the lower and upper approximation operators based on fuzzy coverings and derive their basic properties. To facilitate the computation of fuzzy coverings for fuzzy covering rough sets, the concepts of fuzzy subcoverings, the reducible and intersectional elements, the union and intersection operations are provided and their properties are discussed in detail. Afterwards, we introduce the concepts of consistent functions and fuzzy covering mappings and provide a basic theoretical foundation for the communication between fuzzy covering information systems. In addition, the notion of homomorphisms is proposed to reveal the relationship between fuzzy covering information systems. We show how large-scale fuzzy covering information systems and dynamic fuzzy covering information systems can be converted into small-scale ones by means of homomorphisms. Finally, an illustrative example is employed to show that the attribute reduction can be simplified significantly by our proposed approach.