A GENERAL-APPROACH TO THE FUSION OF IMPRECISE INFORMATION

We consider the problem of fusion of multiple information sources, par ticularly in environments when the sensor observations are imprecise. The concept of a combinability relationship is introduced to enable th e inclusion in the fusion process of information about the appropriate ness of fusing different elements from the observation space. This ide a allows for the use of an expert knowledge base, containing informati on about the domain of the particular problem, in the fusion process a nd leads to a more intelligent aggregation. We show that if we use a c ombinability relationship that only allows fusion of identical element s then the only idempotent fusion of any collection of fuzzy observati ons is their intersection. Using the idea of the fuzzy measure we cons idered situations in which we allow a partial collection of the observ ations determine the fused value. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.