1. Introduction
Mathematical modeling of some phenomena becomes more realistic and suitable by non-continuous dynamical equations, so, in this regard, it is necessary to consider both continuous and discrete models for such problems. These equations can be interpreted by idea time scales, which was introduced for the first time in 1988 by Stefan Hilger [
1] (for more details please see [
2]). The time scales calculus is a unification of the continuous and discrete analysis, which describes the difference and differential equations together as well as allowing us to deal with combining equations of two differential and difference equations simultaneously (see, for example, [
2,
3,
4,
5]).
The theory of dynamic equations on time scales has many interesting applications in control theory, mathematical economics, mathematical biology, engineering and technology (see [
2,
6,
7,
8,
9]). In some cases, there exists uncertainty, ambiguity or vague factors in such problems, and fuzzy theory and interval analysis are powerful tools for modeling these equations on time scales. In [
10], authors introduced and considered the notions of delta derivative and delta integral to fuzzy valued functions on time scales. These definitions may accurately describe fuzzy dynamic processes where time may flow continuously and discretely at different stages in the one model; in other words, these concepts are useful in modelling fuzzy start–stop processes.
As an application, consider an electric circuit of resistor R, with unit Ω, in a series with capacitance C farads and a generator of V volts.
Note that, in an electrical 
 circuit when switch 
 is closed on 
, the capacitor is charged through the resistor and when the switch is afterward closed on 
, the capacitor discharges through the resistor. Suppose we discharge the capacitor periodically every time unit and assume that the discharging takes 
 but is small on time units. Thus, we can simulate it by using the time scales 
. Now, according to the assumptions of the problem, we have
      
The dynamic Equation (
1) describes the time variation of the charge 
q on the capacitor 
Figure 1 and 
t is in a time scale and 
 is a delta derivative of 
q with respect to 
t. Then, the problem along with a fuzzy initial condition is a first order fuzzy dynamic equation on the time scale 
P.
Recently, the theory of fuzzy difference equations in [
11] and a theory of fuzzy differential equations [
12,
13,
14] has been studied separately. In the current work, we are going to incorporate these two theories and describe a new fuzzy theory that is called the theory of fuzzy dynamic equations on time scales, and it is a generalization of the theory of fuzzy differentials and fuzzy difference equations.
To this end, we aim to study the existence and uniqueness of solutions to fuzzy dynamic equations on time scales with a new metric on fuzzy continuous functions on time scales, which is defined in terms of the exponential functions on time scales. This metric greatly simplifies the application of Banach’s theorem for the existence and uniqueness proofs. Indeed, a significant interest of this work is to utilize the rich qualities of the exponential functions on time scales. In fact, the first metric in terms of the exponential functions on time scales is introduced by Tisdell and its colleague [
15], and we generalized it from crisp case to fuzzy case.
This paper is organized as follows. In 
Section 2, notions of the theory of fuzzy and time scales are introduced. Then, the fuzzy delta derivative and delta integral are defined in 
Section 3. In addition, a new metric on the space of fuzzy continuous functions on time scales is introduced. Finally, in the last section, the existence and uniqueness of the solution to a nonlinear fuzzy dynamic equations on time scales is established.
  2. Preliminaries
For a better understanding, the notations used throughout the paper and keeping the paper somewhat self-contained, this section contains some preliminary definitions and associated notations.
Definition 1. Let X be a nonempty set. A fuzzy set u in X is characterized by its membership function . Then,  is interpreted as the degree of membership of an element x in the fuzzy set u for each  [16].  Let us denote by 
 the class of fuzzy subsets of the real axis (i.e., 
), satisfying the following properties:
	  
- u is normal, i.e., there exists  with , 
- u is a fuzzy-convex set (i.e., , 
- u is upper semicontinuous on , 
-  is compact, where  denotes the closure of a subset. 
Then,  is called the space of fuzzy numbers. Obviously, . Here,  is understood as . For , denote  and .
Using the definition of fuzzy numbers, it follows that, for any ,  is a bounded closed interval. The notation  denotes explicitly the -level set of u. We refer to  and  as the lower and upper branches on u, respectively.
For  and , the sum  and the product  are defined by , , , where  means the usual addition of two intervals of  and  means the usual product between a scalar and a subset of .
Theorem 1. According to Bede et al. [13].- If we denote  then  is the zero element with respect to +, i.e.,  , for all . 
- For any  with  or  and any , we have ; for general , the above property does not hold. 
- For any  and any , we have . 
- For any  and any , we have . 
  Definition 2. Let . If there exists  such that , then z is called the H-difference of x and y, and it is denoted by  [13].  Let 
, 
 be the Hausdorff distance between fuzzy numbers, where 
, 
. The following properties are well-known (see [
12,
13]):
	  
- , 
- ,  
- , 
      where 
 is a complete metric space. In addition, we define for each 
, 
, which 
 is a set of all fuzzy continuous functions on 
I.
Definition 3. Given , the -difference is the fuzzy number w, if it exists, such thatIf  exists, its  cuts are given byand  if  exists. If  and  are satisfied simultaneously, then w is a crisp number [17,18].  Remark 1. In the fuzzy case, it is possible that the -difference of two fuzzy numbers does not exist. If  exists, then  exists and . The following properties have been obtained in [17,18].  Proposition 1. Let  be two fuzzy numbers [17,18] ; then,- if the -difference exists, it is unique; 
-  or  whenever the expressions on the right exist; in particular, ; 
- if  exists in the sense (i), then  exists in the sense (ii) and vice versa; 
- ; 
- ; 
-  if and only if ; furthermore,  if and only if . 
  Definition 4. A time scale  is a non-empty, closed subset of , equipped with the topology induced from the standard topology on  [2].  According to Definition 4, a time scale can be continuous and discrete or continuous-discrete. Hence, the definition of jump operator is very important to time scales.
Definition 5. The forward (backward) jump operator  at t for  (respectively,  at t for ) is given byAdditionally, , if , and  if . Furthermore, the graininess function  is defined by  and also the left-graininess function  is defined by  [2].  It is enough to recognize that, for connected points, the forward and backward jump operators return the same element of the time scale that was drawn from the domain. However, for non-connected points, the forward and backward jump operators return the next and previous elements of the time scale, respectively. The jump operators then enable the classification of points in a time scale in the following way:
      
Definition 6. If , then the point t is called right-scattered; while, if  then t is termed left-scattered. If  and  then the point t is called right-dense; while if  and , then we say that t is left-dense [2].  Definition 7. A mapping  is rd-continuous if it is continuous at each right-dense point and its left-side limits exist (finite) at left-dense points in . We denote the set of rd-continuous functions from  to  by .
 Definition 8. Fix  and . Define  to be the real number (provided it exists) with the property that, given , there is a neighborhood  of t (i.e., ) such thatfor all .  is called the -derivative of f at t [2].  Definition 9. We say that a function  is right-increasing at a point  provided that [19]: Similarly, we say that f is right-decreasing if in ,  and in , .
 Theorem 2. Suppose  is differentiable at  [19]. If , then f is right-increasing at the point . If , then f is right-decreasing at the point .  Here, we review some properties of the exponential function on time scales. For more details, we refer to Definition 2.30 in [
2].
A function 
 is called regressive if 
 for all 
 and the function 
p is called positively regressive if 
 for all 
. If 
 is a regressive function and 
, then (see Theorem 2.33 in [
2]) the exponential function 
 is the unique solution of the initial value problem
      
The following properties of the exponential function will be used in the last section:
	  
- ,  
The set  is defined to be  if  has a left-scattered maximum m. Otherwise, .
  3. Fuzzy Delta Derivative and Integral on Time Scales
Definition 10. Assume that  is a fuzzy function and let  [10]. Then, f is said to be right fuzzy delta differentiable at t, if there exists an element  of  with the property that, given any , there exists a neighborhood  of t [i.e.,  for some  such that for all with .  Definition 11. Assume that  is a fuzzy function and let  [10]. Then, f is said to be left fuzzy delta differentiable at t, if there exists an element  of  with the property that, given any , there exists a neighborhood  of t such that for all with .  In the above definitions  and  are called, respectively, right fuzzy delta derivative and left fuzzy delta derivative at t.
Definition 12. Let  be a fuzzy function and  [10]. Then, f is said to be -Hukuhara differentiable at t, if f is both left and right fuzzy delta differentiable at  and  and we will denote it by .  We call  the -Hukuhara derivative of f at t. We say that f is -differentiable at t if its -derivative exists at t. Moreover, we say that f is -differentiable on  if its -derivative exists at each . The fuzzy function  is then called the -derivative of f on .
Proposition 2. If the -derivative of f at t exists, then it is unique. Hence, the -derivative is well defined [10].  Lemma 1. Assume that  is -differentiable at , then f is continuous at t [10].  Theorem 3. Assume that  is a function and let , then we have the following [10]:- If f is continuous at t and t is right-scattered, then f is -differentiable at t with 
- If t is right-dense, then f is -differentiable at t iff the limitsexist and satisfy in this case 
  Lemma 2. If f is -differentiable at , then  or  [10].  Remark 2. Assuming that f is -differentiable, we say that f is -differentiable in the sense  or -differentiable if, in the definition of -derivative, the -difference is equivalent to the H-difference and we say that f is -differentiable in the sense  or -differentiable if -difference is equivalent to another case.
 Lemma 3. If  are -differentiable at , in the same case of -differentiability (both are -differentiable or -differentiable), then  is also -differentiable at t and  Proof.  It can be easily proved by using Theorem 3. ☐
 Lemma 4. If  is -differentiable at , then, for any nonnegative constant ,  is -differentiable at t with  Proof.  It follows easily from the Theorem 3. ☐
 Now, we present the definition of integral on time scales and give some properties of integrals on time scales for fuzzy valued functions. Let 
 be a time scale, 
 be points in 
, and 
 be the closed (and bounded) interval in 
. A partition of 
 is any finite ordered subset
      
The number n depends on the particular partition, so we have . The intervals  for  are called the subintervals of the partition P. We denote the set of all partitions of  by .
Lemma 5. According to Guseinov and Kaymaklan [20], for each , there exists a partition  given by  such that, for each , eitheror  Definition 13. A function  is called Riemann -integrable on , if there exists , with the property [10]: , such that for any division of ,  with , and for any points , , we have Then, we denote  the fuzzy Riemann -integral.
 Definition 14. Let  [10]. We define levelwise the -integral of f in , (denoted by  or ) as the set of the integrals of the measurable selections for , for each . We say that f is -integrable over  if  and we havefor each .  Theorem 4. If  are -integrable on , then , where , is -integrable on  and  Proof.  It easily follows from Definition 13. ☐
 Theorem 5. If  is -differentiable on  and , then  is -integrable over  andorfor any .  Proof.  By setting the functions 
 and 
 defined in Definition 15 [
10] as the same constant functions, the proof immediately follows from Theorem 18 [
10]. ☐
 Theorem 6. Let  and let . Then, f is -integrable from t to  and    4. New Metric Space
Now, we are ready to define a new metric for the fuzzy continuous functions on time scales.
Definition 15. Let D denote the Hausdorff metric on space . Let  be a constant. We define the space of all fuzzy continuous functions on time scales, , along with -metric, , which is defined byfor all  and   In addition, since 
, 
 is defined as
      
      for all 
 and 
, which is the same as the Hausdorff metric on the fuzzy continuous functions space.
In addition, we consider
      
      for all 
 and 
 and 
 is defined as
      
Here, 
 mapping is a new generalization of the Bielecki’s metric in [
21]. The following two lemmas describe some important properties of 
 and 
Lemma 6. If  is constant, then:-  is a metric and is equivalent to the sup-metric , 
-  is a complete metric space. 
  Proof.  We note that 
 as any constant function is always 
-continuous. Since 
, we have 
 for all 
. Hence, 
 (set of positively regressive functions) and 
 for all 
 (see [
2]). It follows that, for each 
 we have
      
- since  - ,  -  thus  - .  -  if and only if  - , and we know that  -  if and only if  - . Since D is a metric,  - . In addition, we have
           - 
          We know that if  - , then  -  is right-increasing. Thus, we have
           - 
          It follows that
           
- Now, we show that  -  is a complete metric space. To this end, we show that every Cauchy sequence in  -  converges to a function in  - . Let  -  be a Cauchy sequence in  - . This means that, for every  - , there is a positive integer  -  such that
           - 
          Thus, according to 1.,
           - 
          and  -  is a complete metric space (see [ 14- ]). Thus, there exists a  -  such that
           - 
          and, as a result of  -  we have  - . Hence, a Cauchy sequence  -  in  -  is convergent and the limit is a fuzzy continuous function on  - . Thus,  -  is a complete metric space. 
- ☐ 
 Now, we show  has some properties similar to the properties of a norm in the usual crisp sense without being a norm. It is not a norm because  is not a vector space (see part (ii) of Theorem 1) and, consequently,  with  is not a normed space.
Lemma 7. The map  has the the following properties:-  if and only if , 
-  for all  and , 
-  for all . 
    5. Results
Before starting the main discussion, we give a definition which is necessary.
Definition 16. Let  be a time scale. A function  is called  Consider the following fuzzy dynamic equations
      
      and
      
      where 
.
Lemma 8. For , the fuzzy dynamic equation , , where  is -continuous, is equivalent to one of the following fuzzy integral equationson interval , depending on the  considered in Definition 12,  or , respectively.  Proof.  Let us suppose that 
 is a solution of the fuzzy dynamic equation 
, 
. Then, by integration, we get
      
      Thus,
      
      where, in both cases, we have a solution 
 of the 
-integral equation.
In fact, a solution to the fuzzy integral Equation (
14) is a continuous function satisfying the conditions in Equation (
14). Now, if 
 is a solution to one of the 
-integral Equation (
14), we can write
      
      and
      
      or
      
      and
      
Therefore, if 
t is a right-scattered point 
Since 
, it follows that
      
      and, if 
t is a right-dense point 
, we have (in the metric D)
      
      and we observe that
      
Since 
f is continuous at 
t (t is right-dense), it follows for each 
 that there exists a neighborhood 
 such that, for each 
. Hence, by taking the limit as 
, we have
      
Similarly, the left fuzzy delta derivative of f in t is . This means that  is a solution to the fuzzy dynamic equation . ☐
 Considering the proof of Lemma 8, it is deduced that from the first expression in the Equation (
14) that we have a 
 differentiable solution, and, from the second expression in the Equation (
14), we have a 
-differentiable solution.
Lemma 9. For , the fuzzy dynamic equation , , where  is -continuous, is equivalent to one of the following integral equationson interval .  Proof.  It is similar to the proof of Lemma 8. ☐
 Now, in the following theorem, we prove that the problem (
12) has two unique solutions.
Theorem 7. Let  be rd-continuous. If there exists a positive constant L such thatthen the dynamic Equation (12) has two solutions (one  differentiable as  and the other one differentiable as ), , such that .  Proof.  Let 
 be the constant defined in the Lipschitz condition (
16). Define 
 where 
 is an arbitrary constant. Consider the complete metric space 
. Let
      
Note that Equation (
17) is well defined, as 
f is 
-continuous. Since 
f is 
-continuous on 
, according to Theorem 7 in [
10], we have 
 for every 
. Furthermore, 
. Hence,
      
Now, we prove that there exists a unique, continuous function 
x such that 
 i.e., the fixed point of 
P will be the solution to the fuzzy dynamic Equation (
12). In this regard, it is sufficient to show that 
P is a contractive map with contraction constant 
. Let 
. Using the metric 
 in (
10), we note that
      
      here, we used the Lipschitz condition (
16) in the last step. We can rewrite the above inequality as
      
Again, using Definition 15 and employing 
 with 
, we obtain
      
      where 
. Thus, 
P satisfies Equation (
12), and it is a contractive map. Therefore, using Banach’s fixed point theorem, there exists a unique fixed point 
x of 
P in 
.
Similarly, it can be proved that  is a contractive map. ☐
 As can be seen, this metric is incredibly interesting in the sense that it necessitates the operator involved to be contractive on the whole of  rather than on the smaller set.
Example 1. Consider the fuzzy dynamic initial value problemwhere  is -continuous on , since t is -continuous. Therefore, the composition function  will be -continuous, according to Definition 16 for all . Hence, f is - continuous on . In addition, f is Lipschitz continuous on . We note that, for all , we havewhere . Therefore, f satisfies a Lipschitz condition in the second argument on  with Lipschitz constant . Thus, the fuzzy dynamic equation IVP has a unique solution, x, such that .  Example 2. Consider Equation (1) asIn this equation, according to properties of metric D, we have Thus, right side function (19) satisfies a Lipschitz condition with Lipschitz constant . Hence, the fuzzy dynamic Equation (19) has a unique solution.  The next theorem concerns the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the fuzzy dynamic Equation  (
13) using Banach’s fixed-point theorem. However, in the following theorem, a modified Lipschitz condition for 
f is defined that guarantees a unique solution to the fuzzy dynamic Equation (
13).
Theorem 8. Let  be -continuous. If there exists a positive constant L such thatthen the dynamic Equation (13) has two solutions (one differentiable as  and the other one differentiable as ), , such that .  Proof.  Consider the complete metric space 
. Let 
 be the constant defined in the Lipschitz condition  (
20) such that 
, where 
 is an arbitrary constant. Define, for all 
Note that the right side of Equation (
21) is well defined, as the function 
f is 
-continuous. In addition, since 
f is 
-continuous, according to Theorem 7 from [
10], we have that 
 for all 
. Furthermore, 
. Hence,
      
Thus, according to Lemma 9, the fixed points of 
P will be solutions to the fuzzy dynamic Equation (
13). We prove that there exists a unique, continuous function 
x such that 
. To do this, we show that 
P is a contractive map with contraction constant 
. Thus, Banach’s Theorem will guarantee the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the fuzzy dynamic equations.
Let 
. From the definition of 
, we have
      
      where we used Lipschitz condition (
20) in the last step. Moreover, we note that from the property of exponential function, we have 
,
      
Using property (
22) and assumption 
, we obtain
      
      where we used definition 
 and 
 in the last step. Then, we get
      
      where 
. Thus, 
P is a contractive map. Therefore, Banach’s fixed-point theorem implies that there exists a unique solution 
 for dynamic Equation (
13). Similarly, it can be proved that 
 is a contractive map. This completes the proof. ☐
 Example 3. Consider the following fuzzy dynamic equationthe function  in the Equation (23) satisfies the Lipschitz condition (20) with  since Therefore, Equation (23) has a unique solution in     6. Conclusions
In this paper, we introduced the fuzzy dynamic equations on time scales and defined a new metric. In addition, we proved the existence and uniqueness of solutions to first order fuzzy dynamic equations on time scales. In the near future, we would like to expand it for the second order fuzzy dynamic equations.