Dominance-based Rough Set Analysis for Uncertain Data Tables

In this paper, we propose a dominance-based rough set approach for the decision analysis of a preference-ordered uncertain data table, which is comprised of a finite set of objects described by a finite set of criteria. The domains of the criteria may have ordinal properties that express preference scales. In the proposed approach, we first compute the degree of dominance between any two objects based on their imprecise evaluations with respect to each criterion. This results in a fuzzy dominance relation on the universe. Then, we define the degree of adherence to the dominance principle by every pair of objects and the degree of consistency of each object. The consistency degrees of all objects are aggregated to derive the quality of the classification, with which we can define the reducts of an uncertain data table. In addition, the upward and downward unions of decision classes are fuzzy subsets of the universe. The lower and upper approximations of the decision classes based on the fuzzy dominance relation are thus fuzzy rough sets. By using the lower approximations of the decision classes, we can derive two types of decision rules that can be applied to new decision cases. Keywords—Dominance-based rough set approach, multi-criteria decision analysis, preference-ordered data tables, rough set theory, uncertain data tables.