Title: Extension of TODIM for decision making in fuzzy environment: a case empirical research on selection of industrial robot

Authors: Dilip Kumar Sen; Saurav Datta; Siba Sankar Mahapatra

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela – 769008, Odisha, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela – 769008, Odisha, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela – 769008, Odisha, India

Abstract: In order to facilitate decision making in robot selection problem, in this paper, an efficient fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) tool has been highlighted. TODIM coupled with generalised fuzzy numbers (GFNs) set theory (fuzzy-TODIM) has been utilised here to determine the most preferable robot among all possible candidate alternatives. The results obtained thereof, have been compared to that of existing fuzzy-TOPSIS technique. We also propose a new formulation of fuzzy-TODIM (F-TODIM) by exploring the concept of similarity measure (between two fuzzy numbers) in order to compute relative gain and loss for pairs of alternatives with respect to a particular criteria. Similar ranking order of the alternative robots as obtained (in comparison with the F-TODIM formulation based on fuzzy distance measure) exhibits that fuzzy degree of similarity can fruitfully be utilised to evaluate dominance between two alternatives.

Keywords: robot selection; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; TODIM; generalised fuzzy numbers; fuzzy TOPSIS; industrial robots; fuzzy set theory; fuzzy logic; similarity measures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2017.081492

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2017 Vol.26 No.2, pp.238 - 276

Received: 13 Jul 2015
Accepted: 28 Aug 2015
Published online: 10 Jan 2017 *

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