Multi-criteria Group Decision Support System Research Articles

Modeling of an active multi-agent environment for the design of a multi-criteria group decision support system

In the present study, the research problem concerns business intelligence, more precisely collaborative decision-making. The authors propose a complete modeling of a multi-agent active environment for the design of a multicriteria group decision support system dedicated to the spatial problem of localization in territory planning. The proposed model is called ActiveGDSS (Active Group Decision Support System) which uses a coupling between a geographic information system and a multi agents system and is endowed by a new negotiation protocol based on the concession allowing reaching to a consensus which satisfies the territorial actors. The main purpose is to integrate the principle of contextual activation in the modeling of the system which makes the environment an active entity. The main advantages of contextual activation are efficiency gain in terms of execution, better flexibility and reuse of agent behaviors.

Fault Location in Smart Grids Through Multicriteria Analysis of Group Decision Support Systems

This article proposes a clustering-based hierarchical framework that includes a consensus decision support system for locating faults in smart grids. Frequency measurements are initially collected by distributed frequency disturbance recorders, and then, decomposed in the time-frequency domain. Extracted time-frequency variational modes are further analyzed through statistical analysis. The resulted features are then used by the affinity propagation (AP) clustering technique to partition the power grid. The faulty partition is determined by evaluating a heuristic index, and, is then fed to a zNumber-based multicriteria group decision support system to decide on the fault location. The effect of various preferences on AP clustering has been handled by resorting to an aggregation scheme, which considers multiple criteria into account. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework have been validated through a comprehensive study on the IEEE 39-bus system.

Towards a Group Decision Support System

This research focuses on the design and development of an interactive multi-criteria group decision support system (GDSS). This system comprises a set of agents communicating through messages. They aim to find an adequate area that can best address certain criteria among a set of variants (e.g. localization of new infrastructure, shopping mall, hospital, etc.). A GDSS is designed and relies mainly on the presentation of the territory through the functionalities of geographic information system (GIS), and the representation of the multiplicity and diversity of decision makers through the functionalities of a multi-agents system (MAS). Moreover, an argumentation-based negotiation protocol MAS module is provided. This approach is justified by the argumentative nature of the process by which participants justify their choices in order to reach a collective decision. This is achieved by exploiting the multi-criteria methods with an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Electre III.

A web-based group decision support system for multicriteria ranking problems

In this paper, we present an implemented, web-based multicriteria group decision support system for solving multicriteria ranking problems by a collaborative group of decision-makers in sequential or parallel coordination mode and in a distributed and asynchronous environment. This system employs an order-based consensus model for collaborative groups that moves from consistency to consensus. The system is based on consensus measures and it has been designed to provide advice to the decision-makers to increase group consensus level while maintaining the individual consistency of each decision-maker. It is based on the use of fuzzy outranking relations to model individual and group preferences. For the exploitation of the models—formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem and solved with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm—the system generates advice on how decision-makers should change their preferences to reach a ranking of alternatives with a high degree of consistency and consensus.

An Empirical Study of the Consequences of Coordination Modes on Supporting Multicriteria Group Decision Aid Methodologies

At present, distributed group decision-making processes are common practice in networked and information-based organisations. Consequently, an adequate coordination of the activities in a multicriteria group decision process is required to ensure the success of these complicated processes. The coordination modes represent different forms of collaboration that use multicriteria decision aids to aggregate the individuals’ preferences in a consensus schema context. This paper presents the implementation of parallel and sequential coordination methods in a web-based multicriteria group decision support system. We subsequently present an empirical study of the influence of these two coordination methods on the actuation of a collaborative group decision process and the final consensual solution in the context of distributed multicriteria group decision analysis, which represent the loosest and tightest task interdependence.

Web-Base Group Decision Support System for Information Security Decision Making in Case of Indian E-Government Systems

This paper presents a web base multicriteria group decision support system for evaluating information security policy decision making with respect to Indian e-government system. This study first proposes a rational-political group decision-making model which identifies three uncertain factors involved in a group decision-making process: decision maker’s roles in a group reaching a satisfactory solution, preferences for alternatives and judgments for assessment criteria. Based on the model, a linguistic term oriented multi criteria group decision-making method is developed. The method uses general fuzzy number to deal with the three uncertain factors described by linguistic terms and aggregates these factors into a group satisfactory decision that is in a most acceptable degree of the group. Moreover, this study implements the method by developing a web-based group decision support system. This system allows decision makers to participate a group decision-making through the web, and manages the group decision-making process as a whole, from criteria generation, alternative evaluation, opinions interaction to decision aggregation. An information security decision making problem is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Power Distribution System Planning Evaluation by a Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision Support System

Power Distribution System Planning Evaluation by a Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision Support System

Power Distribution System Planning Evaluation by a Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision Support System

The evaluation of solutions is an important phase in power distribution system planning (PDSP) which allows issues such as quality of supply, cost, social service and environmental implications to be considered and usually involves the judgments of a group of experts. The planning problem is thus suitable for the multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method. The evaluation process and evaluation criteria often involve uncertainties incorporated in quantitative analysis with crisp values and qualitative judgments with linguistic terms; therefore, fuzzy sets techniques are applied in this study. This paper proposes a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making (FMCGDM) method for PDSP evaluation and applies a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision support system (FMCGDSS) to support the evaluation task. We introduce a PDSP evaluation model, which has evaluation criteria within three levels, based on the characteristics of a power distribution system. A case-based example is performed on a test distribution network and demonstrates how all the problems in a PDSP evaluation are addressed using FMCGDSS. The results are acceptable to expert evaluators.

A linguistic multi-criteria group decision support system for fabric hand evaluation

Fabric hand evaluation (FHE) is the main measure in textile material selection for fashion design and development. Fabric hand evaluation requires considering multiple evaluation aspects/criteria by a group of evaluators. Some fabric features can also be measured using instruments. The evaluation often uses linguistic terms in the weights of criteria, and the weights and judgments of evaluators. To support a FHE-based material selection, this study first develops a fabric hand-based textile material evaluation model. It then proposes a human-machine measure integrated fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making method. A software tool is also developed, which implements the proposed method and is applied in fabric hand-based textile material evaluation.

Decider: A fuzzy multi-criteria group decision support system

Multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) aims to support preference-based decision over the available alternatives that are characterized by multiple criteria in a group. To increase the level of overall satisfaction for the final decision across the group and deal with uncertainty in decision process, a fuzzy MCGDM process (FMP) model is established in this study. This FMP model can also aggregate both subjective and objective information under multi-level hierarchies of criteria and evaluators. Based on the FMP model, a fuzzy MCGDM decision support system (called Decider) is developed, which can handle information expressed in linguistic terms, boolean values, as well as numeric values to assess and rank a set of alternatives within a group of decision makers. Real applications indicate that the presented FMP model and the Decider software are able to effectively handle fuzziness in both subjective and objective information and support group decision-making under multi-level criteria with a higher level of satisfaction by decision makers.

Emergency management evaluation by a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision support system

Emergency risk management (ERM) is a process which involves dealing with risks to the community arising from emergency events. Emergency management evaluation as one of the important parts of ERM aims assessing and improving social preparedness and organizational ability in identifying, analyzing, and treating emergency risks. This study first develops an emergency management evaluation model. It then proposes an extended fuzzy multi-criteria group evaluation method, which can deal with both subjective and objective criteria under multi-levels by a group of evaluators, for emergency management evaluation. A fuzzy multi-criteria group decision support system (FMCGDSS) is then developed to implement the proposed method for the case of emergency operating center/system evaluation.