OWA operators for discrete gradual intervals: implications to fuzzy intervals and multi-expert decision making. (English) Zbl 1389.90196

Takáč, Zdenko

Kybernetika 52, No. 3, 379-402 (2016).

The author investigates recently introduced notions of (discrete) gradual real numbers and proposes a class of linear orders for them. Next, a class of linear orders for discrete gradual intervals (that represent a generalization of fuzzy intervals) is presented. Subsequently, OWA operators for discrete gradual real numbers as well as for discrete gradual intervals are introduced. As an illustration of the developed methodology, a multi-expert decision making problem is considered. It concerns an example of an optimization problem of a hospital that intends to buy one of three possible kinds of an apparatus appropriate for five different diagnoses. It would make this example more interesting if some more concrete real life information concerning the possible kind of apparatus and diagnoses was presented. (Let us note that purchasing CT devices for hospitals was recently accompanied by medialised scandals.)

Reviewer: Magda Komorníková (Bratislava)

MSC:

90B50	Management decision making, including multiple objectives
91B06	Decision theory

Keywords:

OWA operator; ordered weighted averaging operator; gradual number; gradual interval; fuzzy interval; linear order; total order; multi-expert decision making; type-2 fuzzy set