Parameter Estimation of the Classical Fractal Map Based on a Given Julia Set’s Shape

Abstract

Julia set is one of the most important branches in fractal theory, and has achieved much progress on both theoretical analysis and application research. Nevertheless, most of the existing investigations relied on the systems with known parameters. Few works have been done on the inverse problem about how to determine the system parameter based on a given Julia set’s shape. This work aims to address this issue by starting with the most classical polynomial map. First, by constructing a proper fitness function measuring the Julia sets’ area error, the Julia sets’ parameter estimation is formulated as a kind of optimization problem. According to the known conditions of Julia set to be estimated, the optimization problem is classified into two cases. For one case, when both the shape and size of Julia set are given, we only need to estimate the system’s own parameter [Formula: see text]. For the other case, when the Julia set has only a shape, we redesign the problem into three dimensions by adding a new scaling factor parameter [Formula: see text] and applying the partial coverage principle. Second, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach including dynamically adjustment strategy is adopted to solve the proposed optimization problem. At last, we present seven groups of simulations in which both randomly generated Julia sets and those in existing literature (or on the internet) are included. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed parameter estimation scheme.