New method for measuring the degree of conflict among general basic probability assignments

Abstract

There is doubt about Dempster’s rule of combination because of counter-intuitive results when dealing with conflict information in intelligent reasoning. Therefore, many modified combination rules have been presented in the literature on multi-source information fusion and reasoning with uncertainty. However, the issue of identifying conflict among evidence has been ignored. A new parameter measuring conflict evidence called the conflict distance parameter is defined to determine whether there are conflicts in evidence based on the analysis of existing conflict parameters. At the same time, a decisive rule, which a reasonable conflict measure function should satisfy, is put forward. Finally, an analysis of two typical counter-intuitive situations is given, showing that the new parameter can not only satisfy the decisive rule, but can also attain the same effect as a two-dimensional measure when deciding whether to use the Dempster’s rule of combination, and can exceed its effect when deciding whether to use Dezert-Smarandache theory.