Rule-based system

Mathematics

Mathematical analysis

Dempster–Shafer theory

Artificial intelligence

Generalization

Computer science

Soft Computing

Dempster’s rule of combination can only be applied to independent bodies of evidence. This paper proposes a new rule to combine dependent bodies of evidence. The rule is based on the concept of joint belief distribution, and can be seen as a generalization of Dempster’s rule. When the bodies of evidence are independent, the new combination rule will be reduced into Dempster’s rule. Two examples are illustrated to show the use and effectiveness of the proposed method.

A new rule to combine dependent bodies of evidence