Information Sciences 179 (2009) 2049–2051

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Information Sciences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ins

A note on ‘‘Fuzzy differential equations and the extension principle”

T. Allahviranloo *, M. Shafiee, Y. Nejatbakhsh
Department of Mathematics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran 14778, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this note, we show by an example that the main result in a paper by Bassanezi et al. [M.T.
Received 27 August 2008 Mizukoshi, L.C. Barros, Y. Chalco-Cano, H. Román-Flores, R.C. Bassanezi, Fuzzy differential
Received in revised form 13 January 2009 equations and the extension principle, Information Sciences 177 (2007) 3627–3635], is
Accepted 1 February 2009
incorrect.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Fuzzy sets
Extension principle
Fuzzy differential equation
Differential inclusions

1. Introduction

We consider the following initial value problem


x0 ðtÞ ¼ f ðt; xðtÞ; wÞ;
ð1:1Þ
xðt0 Þ ¼ x0 ;

where w is a vector of constants. We also assume the function f satisfies conditions that problem (1.1) has a unique solution
and this solution is continuous with respect to x and w. If the initial condition and the vector w are fuzzy numbers then we
can fuzzify the function f using Zadeh’s extension principle to obtain fuzzy function ^f . In [5] Bassanezi et al. consider the fol-
lowing problem
(
X 0 ðtÞ ¼ ^f ðt; XðtÞ; WÞ;
ð1:2Þ
Xðt0 Þ ¼ X 0 ;
where X 0 2 FðRn Þ and W 2 FðRk Þ are fuzzy sets and ^f is the fuzzified function.
As discussed in [5] there are at least three possibilities for representing the solution of problem (1.2). The first ap-
proach involves the Hukuhara derivative [4,7]; the second one suggested by Hüllermeier [2,3] is based on a family of
differential inclusions and the last one obtained through Zadeh’s extension principle applied to the deterministic solution
[1,6]. In [5] Bassanezi et al. claim that the solutions of second and third approaches are identical. We show this is not
always the case.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9123508816.

E-mail address: tofigh@allahviranloo.com (T. Allahviranloo).

0020-0255/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ins.2009.02.001
2050 T. Allahviranloo et al. / Information Sciences 179 (2009) 2049–2051

2. Different approaches to the solution of problem (1.2)

2.1. Solution via differential inclusion

In this case, we formulate problem (1.2) as a family of differential inclusions at each a-level set, 0 6 a 6 1
(
x0a ðtÞ 2 ½^f ðt; xa ðtÞ; WÞa ;
ð2:3Þ
xa ðt 0 Þ 2 ½X 0 a ;
and a function xð:Þ is said to be a solution of problem (2.3) on ½t 0 ; T if xð:Þ is absolutely continuous and satisfies the inclusion
almost everywhere in ½t o ; T. The set of all solutions of (2.3) will be denoted by Ra ðX 0 ; W; TÞ, and the attainable set in time
t 2 ½t 0 ; T is a subset of Rn given by
Aat ðX 0 ; WÞ ¼ fxa ðtÞ : xa ðÞ 2 Ra ðX 0 ; W; TÞg:
These attainable sets are the a-level sets of a fuzzy set At ðX 0 ; WÞ on Rn .

2.2. Solution via extension principle

In order to obtain a solution for (1.2) using extension principle we assume that f : X  Rn  Rk ! Rn is a continuous func-
tion and ðx0 ; wÞ 2 X. Let U be an open subset of X such that there is a unique solution xð:; x0 ; wÞ for (1.1) in the interval ½t0 ; T
with ðx0 ; wÞ 2 U and for all t 2 ½t0 ; T. Then xðt; ; Þ is continuous on U and the operator
Lt : U ! Rn
given by Lt ðx0 ; wÞ ¼ xðt; x0 ; wÞ is the unique solution of (1.1) and continuous with respect to ðx0 ; wÞ. So, applying the extension
principle to the solution Lt , we obtain b L t : FðUÞ ! FðRn Þ which is the solution to problem (1.2), with initial condition X 0 and
parameter W, via extension principle, for all t 2 ½t0 ; T.
In [5] by changing the variables y ¼ ðx; wÞ problem (1.1) has rewritten as

y0 ðtÞ ¼ Fðt; yÞ ¼ ðf ðt; xðtÞ; wÞ; oÞ;
ð2:4Þ
yðt 0 Þ ¼ y0 ;
where y0 ðtÞ ¼ ðx0 ðtÞ; 0Þ; yðt0 Þ ¼ ðxðt 0 Þ; wÞ 2 Rn  Rk and it is claimed that

pr1 ð½AFt ðY 0 ; WÞa Þ ¼ Aat ðX 0 ; WÞ; ð2:5Þ

which is not true. This equality was used to prove the following corollary:
Corollary 2.1 [5]. Let U be an open set in Rn  Rk . Suppose that f is continuous, that for each ðx0 ; wÞ 2 U there exists a unique
solution xð; x0 ; wÞ of problem (1.1) and that xðt; ; Þ is continuous on U. Then, there exists b
L t ðX 0 ; WÞ for each ðX 0 ; WÞ 2 FðUÞ and
b
L t ðX 0 ; WÞ ¼ At ðX 0 ; WÞ for all t 2 ½t 0 ; T.
Now we give an example to show the relation (2.5) and as a consequence the corollary is not true.
Example 2.1. We consider the following problem
8 0
< x ðtÞ ¼ yðtÞ;
>
y0 ðtÞ ¼ w  xðtÞ; ð2:6Þ
>
:
xð0Þ ¼ x0 ; yð0Þ ¼ y0 ;
where w is an uncertain constant. The deterministic solution is

xðtÞ ¼ x0 cos t þ y0 sin t þ wð1  cos tÞ;
ð2:7Þ
yðtÞ ¼ x0 sin t þ y0 cos t þ w sin t;
and is continuous with respect to t, w and initial data.
Let X 0 ¼ Y 0 ¼ 0 and W be the triangular fuzzy number ð2; 0; 2Þ. At t ¼ 2p support of solution is suppðb
L 2p ð0; WÞÞ ¼ fð0; 0Þg. If
we formulate the problem as a family of differential inclusions
8 0
< xa ðtÞ ¼ ya ðtÞ;
>
y0a ðtÞ 2 ½Wa  xa ðtÞ ð2:8Þ
>
:
xa ð0Þ 2 ½X 0 a ¼ f0g; a
ya ð0Þ 2 ½Y 0  ¼ f0g:
It is easily seen that ð1  cosðt=2Þ; ð1=2Þ sinðt=2ÞÞ is a solution of (2.8) for a ¼ 0 but ð1  cosð2p=2Þ; ð1=2Þ sinð2p=2ÞÞ ¼ ð2; 0Þ
so ð2; 0Þ 2 suppðA2p ðX 0 ; WÞÞ while ð2; 0Þ R suppðb
L 2p ðX 0 ; WÞÞ hence
b
L t ðX 0 ; WÞ – At ðX 0 ; WÞ:
 T. Allahviranloo et al. / Information Sciences 179 (2009) 2049–2051 2051

Generally, the only thing we can show is that

b
L t ðX 0 ; WÞ  At ðX 0 ; WÞ:
Let y 2 ½Lt ðX 0 ; WÞa then there exist w
 2 ½Wa and 
x 2 ½X 0 a such that y ¼ xðt;   so xð:; 
x; wÞ  2 Ra ðX 0 ; W; TÞ hence
x; wÞ
y ¼ xðt;   2 Aat ðX 0 ; WÞ: So
x; wÞ
½Lt ðX 0 ; WÞa  Aat ðX 0 ; WÞ:

References

[1] J.J. Buckley, Th. Feuring, Fuzzy differential equations, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 110 (2000) 43–54.
[2] P. Diamond, Time-dependent differential inclusions, cocycle attractors and fuzzy differential equations, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy System 7 (1999)
734–740.
[3] E. Hüllermeier, An approach to modeling and simulation of uncertain dynamical systems, International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness Knowledge-
Bases System 5 (1997) 117–137.
[4] O. Kaleva, Fuzzy differential equations, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 24 (1987) 301–317.
[5] M.T. Mizukoshi, L.C. Barros, Y. Chalco-Cano, H. Román-Flores, R.C. Bassanezi, Fuzzy differential equations and the extension principle, Information
Sciences 177 (2007) 3627–3635.
[6] M. Oberguggenberger, S. Pittschmann, Differential equations with fuzzy parameters, Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems 5
(1999) 181–202.
[7] S. Seikkala, On the fuzzy initial value problem, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 24 (1987) 319–330.