An improved evidence fusion algorithm in multi-sensor systems

Multi-sensor information fusion plays an important role in practical application. Although D-S evidence theory can handle this information fusion task regardless of prior knowledge, counter-intuitive conclusions may arise when dealing with highly conflicting evidence. To address this weakness, an improved algorithm of evidence theory is proposed. First, a new distribution distance measurement method is first proposed to measure the conflict between the evidences, and the credibility degree of the evidences can be obtained. Next, a modified information volume calculation method is also introduced to measure the effect of the evidence itself, and the information volume of the evidences can be generated. Afterwards, the credibility degree of each evidence can be modified based on the information volume to obtain the weight of each evidence. Ultimately, the weights of the evidences will be used to adjust the body of evidence before fusion. A numerical example for engine fault diagnosis exhibits the availability and effectiveness of the proposed method, where the BPA of the true fault is 89.680%. Furthermore, an application for target recognition is given to show the validity of the proposed algorithm, where the BPA of the true target is 98.948%. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the best performance than other methods.