A fuzzy approach for the expression of uncertainty in measurement

This paper deals with a fuzzy expression of uncertainty in measurement. The fuzzy approach proposed consists of representing measurements by a family of intervals of confidence stacked atop one another, that in fact define th e upper bound of the probability distributions consistent with these interv als of confidence. This approach is compatible with the ISO Guide for the e xpression of uncertainty in measurement, and is particularly interesting be cause it allows both the handling of specificity and uncertainty of measure ment. Moreover, fuzzy uncertainty propagation is available thanks to fuzzy arithmetic, which is a generalization of interval analysis, yielding both w orst case results and best estimates at the same time. In order to simplify the propagation, a parameterized possibility distribution approximating th e optimal one is proposed and compared with the probabilistic approaches. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.