Group decision making with incomplete fuzzy linguistic preference relations

The aim of this paper is to propose a procedure to estimate missing preference values when dealing with incomplete fuzzy linguistic preference relations assessed using a two‐tuple fuzzy linguistic approach. This procedure attempts to estimate the missing information in an individual incomplete fuzzy linguistic preference relation using only the preference values provided by the respective expert. It is guided by the additive consistency property to maintain experts' consistency levels. Additionally, we present a selection process of alternatives in group decision making with incomplete fuzzy linguistic preference relations and analyze the use of our estimation procedure in the decision process. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Representation of Fuzzy Knowledge

Abstract

A new AI programming language (called FUZZY) is introduced which provides a number of facilities for efficiently representing and manipulating fuzzy knowledge. A fuzzy associative net is maintained by the system, and procedures with associated “procedure demons” may be defined for the control of fuzzy processes. Such standard AI language features as a pattern-directed data access and procedure invocation mechanism and a backtrack control structure are also available.

This paper examines some general techniques for representing fuzzy knowledge in FUZZY, including the use of the associative net for the explicit representation of fuzzy sets and fuzzy relations, and the use of “deduce procedures” to implicitly define fuzzy sets, logical combinations of fuzzy sets, linguistic hedges, and fuzzy algorithms. The role of inference in a fuzzy environment is also discussed, and a technique for computing fuzzy inferences in FUZZY is examined.

The programming language FUZZY is implemented in LISP, and is currently running on a UNIVAC 1110 computer.     

COMPUTATIONAL VERB SYSTEMS: VERB SETS

Abstract

A computational verb set (verb set for short) consists of a computational verb and a crisp set or a fuzzy set. Verb sets generalize the other sets from linguistic structure ”BE + statement” to “verb + statement”. Verb sets are strongly connected to computational verbs and their contexts. In this paper, the framework of verb sets and some basic concepts and properties of verb sets are given. An application of verb sets to chaotic cryptanalysis is presented to illustrate how verb sets are constructed in real-life applications.     

Fuzzy决策中有限方案的群体一致性评价方法与算法

运用三角模糊数的概念提出两种有限方案的群体评价方法：１）根据个体驻向量提出衡量个体间一致性的相似度量函数,由此构造个体、群体的一致性指标,并给出群体一致性的定义,用个体指标提出由个体加权向量寻求群体加权向量的两种方法;２）利用三角模糊数构造语言评价集,并给出一种基于语言的方案评价方法与算法。     

Consensus reaching process for fuzzy behavioral TOPSIS method with probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair fuzzy set based on correlation measure

The paper proposes a consensus reaching process for fuzzy behavioral TOPSIS method with probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (PLq-ROFSs) based on correlation measure. First, the operational laws of adjusted PLq-ROFSs based on linguistic scale function (LSF) for semantics of linguistic terms are introduced, where the PLq-ROFSs have same probability space. In addition, we define the score function and accuracy function of PLq-ROFS based on the proposed operational laws to compare the PLq-ROFSs. Furthermore, we propose the probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair fuzzy weighted averaging (PLq-ROFWA) operator and the probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair fuzzy order weighted averaging (PLq-ROFOWA) operator to aggregate the linguistic decision information. Considering the inconsistency between the individual information and aggregated information in decision-making process and the demiddle of given linguistic sets tocision makers' behavioral factors, we define a new correlation measure based on LSF to develop a consensus reaching process for fuzzy behavioral TOPSIS method with PLq-ROFSs. Finally, a numerical example concerning the selection of optimal green enterprise is given to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method and some comparative analyses with the existing methods are given to show its effectiveness. The sensitivity analysis and stability analysis of the proposed method on the ranking results are also discussed.     

基于优序关系的犹豫模糊语言多准则决策方法

犹豫模糊语言集是语言集和犹豫模糊集的扩展,受传统Electre方法的启发,构建基于优序关系的犹豫模糊语言多准则决策方法. 首先,给出犹豫模糊语言数的Hausdorff距离公式;然后,基于每一准则下方案评价的对比,建立犹豫模糊语言数的优序关系,并在此基础上,提出一种基于优序关系的犹豫模糊语言多准则决策方法;最后,通过算例表明了所提出方法的有效性和可行性.     

A decision support model for group decision making with intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preferences relations

As a new preference structure, the intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preference relation (IFLPR) was introduced to efficiently cope with situations in which the membership degree and non-membership degree are represented as linguistic terms. For group decision making (GDM) problems with IFLPRs, two significant and challenging issues are individual consistency and group consensus before deriving the reliable priority weights of alternatives. In this paper, a novel decision support model is investigated to simultaneously deal with the individual consistency and group consensus for GDM with IFLPRs. First, the concepts of multiplicative consistency and weak transitivity for IFLPRs are introduced and followed by a discussion of their desirable properties. Then, a transformation approach is developed to convert the normalized intuitionistic fuzzy priority weights into multiplicative consistent IFLPR. Based on the distance of IFLPRs, the consistency index, individual consensus degree and group consensus degree for IFLPRs are further defined. In addition, two convergent automatic iterative algorithms are proposed in the investigated decision support model. The first algorithm is utilized to convert an unacceptable multiplicative consistent IFLPR to an acceptable one. The second algorithm can assist the group decision makers to achieve a predefined consensus level. The main characteristic of the investigated decision support model is that it guarantees each IFLPR is still acceptable multiplicative consistent when the predefined consensus level is achieved. Finally, several numerical examples are provided, and comparative analyses with existing approaches are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the investigated model.

     

Linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations and their application to multi-criteria decision making

Linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy sets can be regarded as a qualitative form of intuitionistic fuzzy sets. This type of fuzzy sets uses a linguistic membership degree and a linguistic non-membership degree to represent the qualitative preferred and non-preferred judgments of decision makers. Preference relation is a useful and efficient tool for decision making that only requires the decision makers to compare two objects at one time. Taking the advantages of linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy sets and preference relations, this paper introduces linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations (LIFPRs) and studies their application to decision making. To ensure the ranking of objects reasonably, an additive consistency concept is introduced, and several of its desirable properties are discussed. To cope with inconsistent and incomplete LIFPRs, programming model-based methods to derive additively consistent LIFPRs and determine missing values are constructed, respectively. Subsequently, an approach to multi-criteria decision making with LIFPRs is offered, and the application of the new approach is illustrated by using a decision-making problem about evaluating mobile phones.     

Some q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic aggregation operators and their application to multiple attribute group decision making

q-Rung orthopair fuzzy sets (q-ROFSs), originally presented by Yager, are a powerful fuzzy information representation model, which generalize the classical intuitionistic fuzzy sets and Pythagorean fuzzy sets and provide more freedom and choice for decision makers (DMs) by allowing the sum of the $q\mathrm{t}\mathrm{h}$ power of the membership and the $q\mathrm{t}\mathrm{h}$ power of the nonmembership to be less than or equal to 1. In this paper, a new class of fuzzy sets called q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic sets (q-ROULSs) based on the q-ROFSs and uncertain linguistic variables (ULVs) is proposed, and this can describe the qualitative assessment of DMs and provide them more freedom in reflecting their belief about allowable membership grades. On the basis of the proposed operational rules and comparison method of q-ROULSs, several q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic aggregation operators are developed, including the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic weighted arithmetic average operator, the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic ordered weighted average operator, the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic hybrid weighted average operator, the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic weighted geometric average operator, the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic ordered weighted geometric operator, and the q-rung orthopair uncertain linguistic hybrid weighted geometric operator. Then, some desirable properties and special cases of these new operators are also investigated and studied, in particular, some existing intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators and Pythagorean fuzzy aggregation operators are proved to be special cases of these new operators. Furthermore, based on these proposed operators, we develop an approach to solve the multiple attribute group decision making problems, in which the evaluation information is expressed as q-rung orthopair ULVs. Finally, we provide several examples to illustrate the specific decision-making steps and explain the validity and feasibility of two methods by comparing with other methods.     

A granular counterpart to the gradient operator

 We introduce the linguistic gradient operator, a granular counterpart to the gradient operator in classical calculus. A multiple-input single-output Mamdani fuzzy rulebase is treated as a function in a linguistic state space, defined by the Cartesian product of the antecedent linguistic variables in the rulebase. The value of the consequent linguistic variable is treated as a function in this space, and thus represents the fuzzy rulebase. The linguistic gradient operator takes the consequent function and produces an N-vector of linguistic values, which are approximations to the N first partial derivatives of the consequent function. This vector points in the direction of the greatest local increase of the consequent function, and thus shows how a rule relates to its “neighboring” rules in rule space. Two Examples demonstrate that the linguistic gradient is a linguistic analogue of the classical gradient operator.     

On aggregating uncertain information by type‐2 OWA operators for soft decision making

Yager's ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator has been widely used in soft decision making to aggregate experts' individual opinions or preferences for achieving an overall decision. The traditional Yager's OWA operator focuses exclusively on the aggregation of crisp numbers. However, human experts usually tend to express their opinions or preferences in a very natural way via linguistic terms. Type‐2 fuzzy sets provide an efficient way of knowledge representation for modeling linguistic terms. In order to aggregate linguistic opinions via OWA mechanism, we propose a new type of OWA operator, termed type‐2 OWA operator, to aggregate the linguistic opinions or preferences in human decision making modeled by type‐2 fuzzy sets. A Direct Approach to aggregating interval type‐2 fuzzy sets by type‐2 OWA operator is suggested in this paper. Some examples are provided to delineate the proposed technique. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Deriving the personalized individual semantics of linguistic information from flexible linguistic preference relations

In group decision making, flexible linguistic preference relations (FLPRs) are very useful with the pairwise comparisons taking the form of flexible linguistic expressions (FLEs). Due to the fact that different decision makers have different understandings of words, this paper investigates the personalized individual semantics (PISs) of the linguistic information in FLPRs. Two optimization models are constructed to compute a linguistic distribution which is closest to an incomplete FLE. The FLPRs are transformed into fuzzy preference relations by using optimization models which maximize consistency and consensus of the fuzzy preference relations. The PISs of linguistic terms and subsets of the linguistic term set are obtained in this process. A group decision making model based on FLPRs is presented and a green supplier selection problem in automotive industry is solved by using the proposed model. The comparative analysis is presented to show the feasibility of the group decision making model.     

基于可能度矩阵的概率语言多属性决策方法

为解决两个概率语言术语集之间的优劣比较这一基本问题,在已有可能度计算方法的基础上,提出一种改进的可能度公式.该可能度公式能够克服已有可能度公式的缺点,具有计算过程简单、区分能力强、易于拓展应用等特点.进一步研究发现:基于该可能度公式对多个评估对象进行两两比较得到的可能度矩阵,具有加性一致性的模糊互补偏好关系;将多个可能度矩阵加权平均得到的综合可能度矩阵,也具有加性一致性的模糊互补偏好关系.据此,构建一种概率语言多属性决策方法,并将其应用于军队院校教育教学质量评价.数值实验表明,所提出的概率语言多属性决策方法结构简单、计算过程清晰且具有较强的自检能力,能够通过确保计算过程的正确性来保证决策结果的有效性.     

A Fuzzy Linguistic Methodology to Deal With Unbalanced Linguistic Term Sets

Many real problems dealing with qualitative aspects use linguistic approaches to assess such aspects. In most of these problems, a uniform and symmetrical distribution of the linguistic term sets for linguistic modeling is assumed. However, there exist problems whose assessments need to be represented by means of unbalanced linguistic term sets, i.e., using term sets that are not uniformly and symmetrically distributed. The use of linguistic variables implies processes of computing with words (CW). Different computational approaches can be found in the literature to accomplish those processes. The 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic representation introduces a computational model that allows the possibility of dealing with linguistic terms in a precise way whenever the linguistic term set is uniformly and symmetrically distributed. In this paper, we present a fuzzy linguistic methodology in order to deal with unbalanced linguistic term sets. To do so, we first develop a representation model for unbalanced linguistic information that uses the concept of linguistic hierarchy as representation basis and afterwards an unbalanced linguistic computational model that uses the 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic computational model to accomplish processes of CW with unbalanced term sets in a precise way and without loss of information.     

Fermatean fuzzy linguistic set and its application in multicriteria decision making

In this paper, we propose the concept of Fermatean fuzzy linguistic term sets based on linguistic term sets and Fermatean fuzzy sets. The basic operational laws, the score function, and the accuracy function of Fermatean fuzzy linguistic numbers are provided. Then we propose the Fermatean fuzzy linguistic weighted aggregation operator, the Fermatean fuzzy linguistic weighted geometric operator, and the Fermatean fuzzy linguistic distance measures. Furthermore, we extend the TOPSIS method to the proposed distance measures, and the ranking of alternatives is obtained under a Fermatean fuzzy linguistic environment. An example is provided to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, and a comparison with the existing method is also analyzed. Finally, the sensitivity analysis of the parameter in the proposed distance measure is also discussed.     

A method based on preference degrees for handling hybrid multiple attribute decision making problems

In this paper, we investigate hybrid multiple attribute decision making problems with various forms of attribute values (real numbers, linguistic labels, interval numbers, intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and interval intuitionistic fuzzy numbers). We propose a method based on preference degrees which may take the forms of fuzzy numbers, intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and interval intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The method first normalizes various forms of attribute values into preference degrees, and then uses a preference degree-based weighted averaging operator to aggregate the normalized preference degrees. Meanwhile, for convenience of calculation, a new linguistic representation model is presented, whose feasibility is verified by comparing it with the traditional 4-tuple linguistic representation model, and from our model, the mapping relationship between interval intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and linguistic labels can be constructed. Finally, we illustrate the rationality and practicality of the proposed method by an application example.     

Linguistic labels for expressing fuzzy preference relations infuzzy group decision making

This paper proposes improvements to pairwise group decision making based on fuzzy preference relations in three ways. First, it extends the fuzzy preference relation representation using linguistic labels. Decision makers may express their preference relations in linguistic labels which are more practically implementable for solving group decision making problems. Second, it modifies the computational procedures by using fuzzy sets representation and computation, and by avoiding the use of strict threshold values. This allows natural representation, preserves the preference accuracy, and produces more intuitively meaningful solutions. Finally, it considers fuzzy criteria of the alternatives explicitly. Solutions are first derived based on each criterion, and then by using neat ordered weighted average (OWA) operator the final solutions which accommodate all criteria are determined. The proposed method is verified for solving fuzzy group decision making problems, i.e., advertising media selection cases.     

语言修饰集的研究现状与前景

语言修饰集作为一种刻画不确定信息的有效表达方式,用更加符合语言习惯的表达形式描述决策者对事物的评价结果.与其他语言术语相比,语言修饰集旨在修正隶属函数使其在表达专家的决策信息过程中更具有有效性、客观性,因此基于语言修饰集的研究是非常必要的.鉴于此,对语言修饰集的发展进行综述:首先回顾语言修饰集的研究背景;然后对语言修饰集在运算法则、语义量化、模糊逻辑、分类器等方面的发展进行回顾,同时介绍一些基于语言修饰集在情感分析、工程风险管理等方面的应用;最后展望语言修饰集的研究前景.     

Uncertain linguistic hesitant fuzzy sets and their application in multi‐attribute decision making

To denote the quantitative and qualitative fuzzy information simultaneously, this paper introduces a new type of fuzzy sets called uncertain linguistic hesitant fuzzy sets, which are denoted by an uncertain linguistic variable with several possible interval membership degrees. Considering the application of this type of fuzzy sets, several basic operational laws are defined, and several properties are studied. Meanwhile, an ordered relationship is introduced. Then, two types of uncertain linguistic hesitant fuzzy aggregation operators are defined. One uses additive measures, and the other is based on λ‐fuzzy measures. Then, a similarity measure is presented, by which models for the optimal weight vector are constructed. After that, an approach to uncertain linguistic hesitant fuzzy multi‐attribute decision making is developed. Finally, an illustrative example for evaluating corporate environmental performance is offered to show the concrete practicality of the procedure.