scholarly journals A Self-Adaptive Combination Method in Evidence Theory Based on the Power Pignistic Probability Distance

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 526
Author(s):  
Jian Wang ◽  
Jing-wei Zhu ◽  
Yafei Song

Existing methods employed for combining temporal and spatial evidence derived from multiple sources into a single coherent description of objects and their environments lack versatility in various applications such as multi-sensor target recognition. This is addressed in the present study by proposing an adaptive evidence fusion method based on the power pignistic probability distance. This method classifies evidence sets into non-conflicting and conflicting evidence sets based on the maximum power pignistic probability distance obtained between evidence pairs in the evidence set. Non-conflicting evidence sets are fused using Dempster’s rule, while conflicting evidence sets are fused using a weighted average combination method based on the power pignistic probability distance. The superior evidence fusion performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparisons with the performances of seven other fusion methods based on numerical examples with four different evidence conflict scenarios. The results show that the method proposed in this paper not only can properly fuse different types of evidence, but also provides an excellent focus on the components of evidence sets with high confidence, which is conducive to timely and accurate decisions.

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 762
Author(s):  
Shuai Yuan ◽  
Honglei Wang

In a multi-sensor system, due to the difference of performance of sensors and the environment in which the sensor collects evidence, evidence collected will be highly conflicting, which leads to the failure of D-S evidence theory. The current research on combination methods of conflicting evidence focuses on eliminating the problem of "Zadeh paradox" brought by conflicting evidence, but do not distinguish the evidence from different sources effectively. In this paper, the credibility of each piece of evidence to be combined is weighted based on historical data, and the modified evidence is obtained by weighted average. Then the final result is obtained by combining the modified evidence using D-S evidence theory, and the improved decision rule is used for the final decision. After the decision, the system updates and stores the historical data based on actual results. The improved decision rule can solve the problem that the system cannot make a decision when there are two or more propositions corresponding to the maximum support in the final combination result. This method satisfies commutative law and associative law, so it has the symmetry that can meet the needs of the combination of time-domain evidence. Numerical examples show that the combination method of conflict evidence based on historical data can not only solve the problem of “Zadeh paradox”, but also obtain more reasonable results.


Author(s):  
Zezheng Yan ◽  
Hanping Zhao ◽  
Xiaowen Mei

AbstractDempster–Shafer evidence theory is widely applied in various fields related to information fusion. However, the results are counterintuitive when highly conflicting evidence is fused with Dempster’s rule of combination. Many improved combination methods have been developed to address conflicting evidence. Nevertheless, all of these approaches have inherent flaws. To solve the existing counterintuitive problem more effectively and less conservatively, an improved combination method for conflicting evidence based on the redistribution of the basic probability assignment is proposed. First, the conflict intensity and the unreliability of the evidence are calculated based on the consistency degree, conflict degree and similarity coefficient among the evidence. Second, the redistribution equation of the basic probability assignment is constructed based on the unreliability and conflict intensity, which realizes the redistribution of the basic probability assignment. Third, to avoid excessive redistribution of the basic probability assignment, the precision degree of the evidence obtained by information entropy is used as the correction factor to modify the basic probability assignment for the second time. Finally, Dempster’s rule of combination is used to fuse the modified basic probability assignment. Several different types of examples and actual data sets are given to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed method. Furthermore, the comparative analysis reveals the proposed method to be better at obtaining the right results than other related methods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jing Liu ◽  
ChaoWen Chang ◽  
Yuchen Zhang ◽  
Yongwei Wang

To address the problems of fusion efficiency, detection rate (DR), and false detection rate (FDR) that are associated with existing information fusion methods, a multisource information fusion method featuring dynamic evidence combination based on layer clustering and improved evidence theory is proposed in this study. First, the original alerts are hierarchically clustered and conflicting evidence is eliminated. Then, dynamic evidence combination is applied to fuse the condensed alerts, thereby improving the efficiency and accuracy of the fusion. The experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to current fusion methods in terms of fusion efficiency, DR, and FDR.


Author(s):  
Lifan Sun ◽  
Yuting Chang ◽  
Jiexin Pu ◽  
Haofang Yu ◽  
Zhe Yang

The Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory is widely applied in various fields involved with multi-sensor information fusion for radar target tracking, which offers a useful tool for decision-making. However, the application of D-S evidence theory has some limitations when evidences are conflicting. This paper proposed a new method combining the Pignistic probability distance and the Deng entropy to address the problem. First, the Pignistic probability distance is applied to measure the conflict degree of evidences. Then, the uncertain information is measured by introducing the Deng entropy. Finally, the evidence correction factor is calculated for modifying the bodies of evidence, and the Dempster’s combination rule is adopted for evidence fusion. Simulation experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method dealing with conflicting evidences.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Shenshen Bai ◽  
Longjie Li ◽  
Xiaoyun Chen

The Dempster-Shafer evidence theory has been extensively used in various applications of information fusion owing to its capability in dealing with uncertain modeling and reasoning. However, when meeting highly conflicting evidence, the classical Dempster’s combination rule may give counter-intuitive results. To address this issue, we propose a new method in this work to fuse conflicting evidence. Firstly, a new evidence distance metric, named Belief Mover’s Distance, which is inspired by the Earth Mover’s Distance, is defined to measure the difference between two pieces of evidence. Subsequently, the credibility weight and distance weight of each piece of evidence are computed according to the Belief Mover’s Distance. Then, the final weight of each piece of evidence is generated by unifying these two weights. Finally, the classical Dempster’s rule is employed to fuse the weighted average evidence. Several examples and applications are presented to analyze the performance of the proposed method. Experimental results manifest that the proposed method is remarkably effective in comparison with other methods.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (05) ◽  
pp. 1017-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-Ping Yang ◽  
Hong-Zhong Huang ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Yan-Feng Li

Although Dempster–Shafer (D–S) evidence theory and its reasoning mechanism can deal with imprecise and uncertain information by combining cumulative evidences for changing prior opinions of new evidences, there is a deficiency in applying classical D–S evidence theory combination rule when conflict evidence appear — conflict evidence causes counter-intuitive results. To address this issue, alternative combination rules have been proposed for resolving the appeared conflicts of evidence. An underlying assumption is that conflict evidences exist, which, however, is not always true. Moreover, it has been verified that conflict factors may not be accurate to characterize the degree of conflict. Instead, the Jousselme distance has been regarded as a quantification criterion for the degree of conflict because of its promising properties. To avoid the counter-intuitive results, multiple sources of evidence should be classified first. This paper proposes a novel algorithm to quantify the classification of multiple sources of evidence based on a core vector method, and the algorithm is further verified by two examples. This study also explores the relationship between complementary information and conflicting evidence and discusses the stochastic interpretation of basic probability assignment functions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Rao ◽  
K. K. Annamdas

The application of different types of evidence theories in the modeling, analysis and design of engineering systems is explored. In most studies dealing with evidence theory, the Dempster–Shafer theory (DST) has been used as the framework not only for the characterization and representation of uncertainty but also for combining evidence. The versatility of the theory is the motivation for selecting DST to represent and combine different types of evidence obtained from multiple sources. In this work, five evidence combination rules, namely, Dempster–Shafer, Yager, Inagaki, Zhang, and Murrphy combination rules, are considered. The limitations and sensitivity of the DST rule in the case of conflicting evidence are illustrated with examples. The application of all the five evidence combination rules for the modeling, analysis and design of engineering systems is illustrated using a power plant failure example and a welded beam problem. The aim is to understand the basic characteristics of each rule and develop preliminary guidelines or criteria for selecting an evidence combination rule that is most appropriate based on the nature and characteristics of the available evidence. Since this work is the first one aimed at developing the guidelines or criteria for selecting the most suitable evidence combination rule, further studies are required to refine the guidelines and criteria developed in this work.


2012 ◽  
Vol 482-484 ◽  
pp. 684-687
Author(s):  
Zhi Gang Ma

As one of the most important data fusion methods used for dealing with uncertainty problems, the D-S evidence reasoning has been applied to lots of data fusion systems. In this paper, the evidence combination principles of D-S evidence theory are represented in detail firstly. In view of the deficiency of D-S method, one of improved evidence combination method is introduced. A given practical example demonstrates that the improved method can be applied to dominating multi evidences with great confliction, and the performance and reliability of fusion can also be improved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Miguel R. Luaces ◽  
Jesús A. Fisteus ◽  
Luis Sánchez-Fernández ◽  
Mario Munoz-Organero ◽  
Jesús Balado ◽  
...  

Providing citizens with the ability to move around in an accessible way is a requirement for all cities today. However, modeling city infrastructures so that accessible routes can be computed is a challenge because it involves collecting information from multiple, large-scale and heterogeneous data sources. In this paper, we propose and validate the architecture of an information system that creates an accessibility data model for cities by ingesting data from different types of sources and provides an application that can be used by people with different abilities to compute accessible routes. The article describes the processes that allow building a network of pedestrian infrastructures from the OpenStreetMap information (i.e., sidewalks and pedestrian crossings), improving the network with information extracted obtained from mobile-sensed LiDAR data (i.e., ramps, steps, and pedestrian crossings), detecting obstacles using volunteered information collected from the hardware sensors of the mobile devices of the citizens (i.e., ramps and steps), and detecting accessibility problems with software sensors in social networks (i.e., Twitter). The information system is validated through its application in a case study in the city of Vigo (Spain).


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