An overview of granular computing

In the field of computational intelligence,granular computing(GrC)is a new way to simulate human thinking to help solve complicated problems.GrC involves all the theories,methodologies and techniques of granularity,providing a powerful tool for the solution of complex problems,massive data mining,and fuzzy information processing.In this paper,first the current situation and the development prospects of GrC are introduced,then the fundamental and existing problems related to GrC are presented and its basic models and methods summarized.Finally,some future research topics about GrC are presented,such as,uniform granular computing model,granulation of complex problem space,transformation between granule spaces,efficient granular computing algorithm,novel granular computing model,dynamic granular computing model,data-driven granular computing model,fuzzy granular computing method,and the applications of granular computing models,etc.