The spherical distance for intuitionistic fuzzy sets and its application in decision analysis

Abstract

Different from traditional distances between Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), the spherical distance between two IFSs relies not only on their relative differences but also their absolute values. In this paper, we generalize the properties of spherical distance measures between IFSs, and investigate the applications of spherical distance measures in group decision making, pattern recognition and medical diagnosis. We develop an optimization spherical distance model with IFS preference in group decision making, and demonstrate that this model is feasible and practical with an evaluation model of drought risk. By using comparative analysis method, we show that this new spherical distance can also be applied in other fields such as pattern recognition and medical diagnosis.

Keywords:

• spherical distance
• Intuitionistic fuzzy sets
• group decision-making
• optimization model
• drought risk analysis

JEL Classification:

• C02
• C44
• C61
• D70
• D81

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zaiwu Gong

Zaiwu GONG received his PhD in Management Science and Technology from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is currently a professor and PhD tutor at the college of economics and management, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. His research interests include group decision making theory, fuzzy sets theory, grey system and evaluation of meteorological disasters risk. He had refereed more than 50 papers for different international journals or international conferences such as Information Science, Soft Computing, etc. He had published more than 70 papers in refereed journals during recent years.

Xiaoxia Xu

Xiaoxia XU. Master at the College of Economics and Management in Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. She has published more than 8 papers in journals and conference proceedings, including journals such as Omega, Applied Soft Computing and Natural Hazards. Her research interests are decision analysis and group decision-making.

Yingjie Yang

Yingjie YANG received his PhD in Computer Science at Loughborough University in 2008. In 2002, having completed his research at Loughborough University, Dr Yang joined De Montfort University as a senior lecturer, and then was promoted to Reader in Computational Intelligence in 2012. Dr Yang has published over 70 papers in top academic journals and conferences and made outstanding and original contribution, such as his research on grey sets and R-fuzzy sets published in Information Sciences. As a principle investigator or co-investigator, Dr Yang has obtained a number of research projects supported by Royal Society, European Space Agency, Royal Academy of Engineering, Leverhulme Trust and De Montfort University.

Yi Zhou

Yi ZHOU. Master, graduated from the College of Atmospheric Science of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology with master’s degree in 2015. Research interest: regional climate, simulation of weather phenomena, meteorological data analysis and assimilation.

Huanhuan Zhang

Huanhuan ZHANG graduated from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and obtained a Master’s degree in Management in 2015. He has published more 4 papers in journals and conference proceedings including journals such as European Journal of Operational Research. His main research fields are decision analysis and group decision-making.