A new ranking procedure by incomplete pairwise comparisons using preference subsets

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Utkin, Lev V.

Affiliations: Department of Computer Science, St.Petersburg State Forest Technical Academy, Institutski per. 5, 194021, St.Petersburg, Russia. E-mail: lev.utkin@mail.ru

Abstract: A method for ranking of alternatives or objects and its extensions by incomplete pairwise comparisons using random set theory are proposed in the paper. The main feature of the method is that it allows us to deal with comparisons of arbitrary groups of alternatives. The method is extended on the case of independent groups of experts. The imprecise Dirichlet model is also used to make cautious decisions in several cases. Various numerical examples illustrate the proposed method and its extensions.

Keywords: Expert judgments, pairwise comparison, preferences, Dempster-Shafer theory, belief and plausibility functions, imprecise Dirichlet model, ranking

DOI: 10.3233/IDA-2009-0365

Journal: Intelligent Data Analysis, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 229-241, 2009