Combining Dependent Sources of Information Within the Framework of Evidence Theory
摘要
The paper introduces and discusses a family of conjunctive information aggregation operators within the framework of evidence theory based on the use of copulas and t-norms. Such operators allow modeling the dependence of information sources and aggregating many sources. It is shown that the introduced operators will satisfy to a certain extent the general requirements (desirable properties) imposed on the rules of combination in the theory of evidence. A new type of conjunctive aggregation for jointly consonant bodies of evidence is explored in more detail. The choice of one or another t-norm or copula in such a conjunctive rule can be based on solving a multi-criteria choice problem with respect to several aggregation quality functionals.