Conflict management with dependent information sources in the belief function framework

Abstract

Several rules were proposed in the context of evidence combination to deal with the conflict generated between the combined information sources. However, in the belief function framework, as far as we know only one rule exists for managing dependent bodies of evidence which is the cautious rule. Unfortunately, this rule does not give the conflict its initial alarm role and does not overcome the absorbing effect of the conflictual mass. The Combination With Adapted Conflict (CWAC) was proposed as a solution to this problem but only when dealing with independent information sources. Based on the cautious rule and inspired from the behaviour of CWAC towards the conflict, our contribution in this paper is to propose such a solution in the context of combining dependent sources.