Generalization of Dempster–Shafer theory: A complex mass function

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 3266-3275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuyuan Xiao
Author(s):  
Atiye Sarabi-Jamab ◽  
Babak N. Araabi

Complexity of computations, particularly due to large number of focal elements (FEs), in Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) motivates the development of approximation algorithms. Existing approximation methods include efficient algorithm for special hypothesis space, Monte Carlo based techniques, and simplification procedures. In this paper, the quality of the simplification-based approximation algorithms is evaluated using a new information-based comparison methodology. To this end, three structured testbeds are introduced. Each testbed is designed with an eye on a particular form of uncertainty associated with a body of evidence (BoE) in DST, i.e., conflict and non-specificity. Three proposed testbeds along with the classic testbed are utilized to evaluate the accuracy and complexity of existing algorithms. In light of the proposed evaluation methodology, a new approximation method is presented as well. The proposed algorithm has the ability to choose the most informative FEs without being forced to select the FEs with the largest mass function. Comparison of overall qualitative performance of approximation algorithms provides accuracy versus computational time tradeoff to choose an appropriate approximation method in different applications. Moreover, experiments with testbeds indicate that our proposed algorithm enhances the accuracy and computational tractability simultaneously.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ias Sri Wahyuni ◽  
Rachid Sabre

In this article, we give a new method of multi-focus fusion images based on Dempster-Shafer theory using local variability (DST-LV). Indeed, the method takes into account the variability of observations of neighbouring pixels at the point studied. At each pixel, the method exploits the quadratic distance between the value of the pixel I (x, y) of the point studied and the value of all pixels which belong to its neighbourhood. Local variability is used to determine the mass function. In this work, two classes of Dempster-Shafer theory are considered: the fuzzy part and the focused part. We show that our method gives the significant and better result by comparing it to other methods.


Author(s):  
Yunhui Hou

Abstract In this article, a method is proposed to conduct a global sensitivity analysis of epistemic uncertainty on both system input and system structure, which is very common in early stage of system development, using Dempster-Shafer theory (DST). In system reliability assessment, the input corresponds to component reliability and system structure is given by system reliability function, cut sets, or truth table. A method to propagate real-number mass function through set-valued mappings is introduced and applied on system reliability calculation. Secondly, we propose a method to model uncertain system with multiple possible structures and how to obtain the mass function of system level reliability. Finally, we propose an indicator for global sensibility analysis. Our method is illustrated, and its efficacy is proved by numerical application on two case studies.


Author(s):  
Luiz Alberto Pereira Afonso Ribeiro ◽  
Ana Cristina Bicharra Garcia ◽  
Paulo Sérgio Medeiros Dos Santos

The use of big data and information fusion in electronichealth records (EHR) allowed the identification of adversedrug reactions(ADR) through the integration of heteroge-neous sources such as clinical notes (CN), medication pre-scriptions, and pathological examinations. This heterogene-ity of data sources entails the need to address redundancy,conflict, and uncertainty caused by the high dimensionalitypresent in EHR. The use of multisensor information fusion(MSIF) presents an ideal scenario to deal with uncertainty,especially when adding resources of the theory of evidence,also called Dempster–Shafer Theory (DST). In that scenariothere is a challenge which is to specify the attribution of be-lief through the mass function, from the datasets, named basicprobability assignment (BPA). The objective of the presentwork is to create a form of BPA generation using analy-sis of data regarding causal and time relationships betweensources, entities and sensors, not only through correlation, butby causal inference.


2002 ◽  
Vol 1804 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Klein ◽  
Ping Yi ◽  
Hualiang Teng

The Dempster–Shafer theory for data fusion and mining in support of advanced traffic management is introduced and tested. Dempste–Shafer inference is a statistically based classification technique that can be applied to detect traffic events that affect normal traffic operations. It is useful when data or information sources contribute partial information about a scenario, and no single source provides a high probability of identifying the event responsible for the received information. The technique captures and combines whatever information is available from the data sources. Dempster’s rule is applied to determine the most probable event—as that with the largest probability based on the information obtained from all contributing sources. The Dempster–Shafer theory is explained and its implementation described through numerical examples. Field testing of the data fusion technique demonstrated its effectiveness when the probability masses, which quantify the likelihood of the postulated events for the scenario, reflect current traffic and weather conditions.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3727
Author(s):  
Joel Dunham ◽  
Eric Johnson ◽  
Eric Feron ◽  
Brian German

Sensor fusion is a topic central to aerospace engineering and is particularly applicable to unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Evidential Reasoning, also known as Dempster-Shafer theory, is used heavily in sensor fusion for detection classification. High computing requirements typically limit use on small UAS platforms. Valuation networks, the general name given to evidential reasoning networks by Shenoy, provides a means to reduce computing requirements through knowledge structure. However, these networks use conditional probabilities or transition potential matrices to describe the relationships between nodes, which typically require expert information to define and update. This paper proposes and tests a novel method to learn these transition potential matrices based on evidence injected at nodes. Novel refinements to the method are also introduced, demonstrating improvements in capturing the relationships between the node belief distributions. Finally, novel rules are introduced and tested for evidence weighting at nodes during simultaneous evidence injections, correctly balancing the injected evidenced used to learn the transition potential matrices. Together, these methods enable updating a Dempster-Shafer network with significantly less user input, thereby making these networks more useful for scenarios in which sufficient information concerning relationships between nodes is not known a priori.


Energy ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
Aurora A. Kawahara ◽  
Peter M. Williams

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