Can Evidence Be Combined in the Dempster-Shafer Theory
This work clarifies a theoretical issue in evidence combination for uncertainty reasoning, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing relational models without broad practical impact.
The paper addresses the controversy over Dempster's rule of combination in Dempster-Shafer theory by proposing a new relational model where D-S masses are represented as conditional granular distributions, showing that Zadeh's conjecture on noncombinability does not apply in this model.
Dempster's rule of combination has been the most controversial part of the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory. In particular, Zadeh has reached a conjecture on the noncombinability of evidence from a relational model of the D-S theory. In this paper, we will describe another relational model where D-S masses are represented as conditional granular distributions. By comparing it with Zadeh's relational model, we will show how Zadeh's conjecture on combinability does not affect the applicability of Dempster's rule in our model.