Analyzing the Degree of Consistency among Evidence from Different Sources

Abstract

In view of the study on the conflict degree among the evidence from different sources made by Weiru Liu, this article improves his analysis by coming up with the analysis of consistency degree among the evidence. In this research, the conflict and the harmony in the analysis of the degree of conflict (ADCF) are developed into the consistency, the conflict, the nonconflict and inconsistency in the analysis of the degree of consistency (ADCS). On this basis, the general mathematical and practical expressions of the consistency degree are proposed by resorting to the mass of the combined belief assigned to the empty-set before the normalization and the distance between betting commitments of evidence, and the impact of the consistency degree on the applicability of Dempster's combination rule is analyzed. The representative numerical examples and the comparison of the ADCF with the ADCS demonstrate that the ADCS provides a strongly robust and reasonable indicator on the applicability of Dempster's combination rule.