Robin Wikström

A new consensus model for group decision making using fuzzy ontology

Involving many people in decision making does not guarantee success. In practice, there are always individuals who try to exert pressure in order to persuade others who could easily be influenced. In these situations, classical group decision making models fail. Thus, there is still the necessity of developing tools to help users reach collective decisions as if they participated in a real face to face meeting. In such a way, a proper negotiation process can lead to successful solutions. Therefore, we propose a new consensus model to deal with the psychology of negotiation by using the power of a fuzzy ontology as weapon of influence in order to improve group decision scenarios making them more precise and realistic. In addition, the use of a fuzzy ontology gives us the possibility to take into account large sets of alternatives.

Understanding Movement and Interaction: An Ontology for Kinect-Based 3D Depth Sensors

Microsoft Kinect has attracted great attention from research communities, resulting in numerous interaction and entertainment applications. However, to the best of our knowledge, there does not exist an ontology for 3D depth sensors. Including automated semantic reasoning in these settings would open the doors for new research, making possible not only to track but also understand what the user is doing. We took a first step towards this new paradigm and developed a 3D depth sensor ontology, modelling different features regarding user movement and object interaction. We believe in the potential of integrating semantics into computer vision. As 3D depth sensors and ontology-based applications improve further, the ontology could be used, for instance, for activity recognition, together with semantic maps for supporting visually impaired people or in assistance technologies, such as remote rehabilitation.

Aggregation Operators and Interval-Valued Fuzzy Numbers in Decision Making

Aggregation operators play a fundamental role in decision making, especially when there are numerous (conflicting) criteria present. In case of uncertain data, an important task is to develop appropriate solutions for the aggregation process. In many applications the knowledge and data provided by the experts tend to be vague, as experts express their knowledge in non-structured and ambiguous ways, for instance by using linguistic terms. We combine interval-valued fuzzy sets and OWA operators to create new aggregation methods and we prove that the new operators satisfy some important properties. In this article we present novel approaches for aggregating vague and imprecise information.

The value of project execution services: a problem and uncertainty perspective

Like services in general project execution services ought to be marketed and sold based on the value they add rather than the cost they accrue. Project services are typically complex and abstract, and hence their benefits are difficult to directly explicate. The aim is to investigate how contractors and suppliers can overcome this dilemma and exercise value-based selling in terms of the typical services they provide. A design science inspired study was used to create a service configurator addressing the dilemma. At the same time the configurator provided a means for studying the value identification and communication process in six sales projects. It is concluded that contractors and suppliers ought to approach customer value by looking for problems that create uncertainty in the underlying investment and to match them with suitable services. Key in communicating the value of the services is to focus on creating certainty as to the parties’ ability to cope with the uncertainty in the investment with the help of these services.

A Novel Android Application Design Based on Fuzzy Ontologies to Carry Out Local Based Group Decision Making Processes

The appearance of Web 2.0 and mobile technologies, the increase of users participating on the Internet and the high amount of available information have created the necessity of designing tools capable of making the most out of this environment. In this paper, the design of an Android application that is capable of aiding some experts in carrying out a group decision making process in Web 2.0 and mobile environments is presented. For this purpose, Fuzzy Ontologies are used in order to deal with the high amount of information available for the users. Thanks to the way that they deal with the information, they are used in order to retrieve a small set of alternatives that the users can utilize in order to carry out group decision making processes with a feasible set of valid alternatives.

OWAD operators in Type-2 fuzzy ontologies

Fuzzy ontologies provide an efficient tool to represent and utilize imprecise and vague data in decision making problems. In the presence of imprecise data in ontologies, aggregation operators play an important role in the decision making process. In this paper we present new definitions of ordered weighted averaging distance (OWAD) operators for interval-valued fuzzy numbers (IVFN) and show that the new definitions satisfy some important properties. The operators are employed to aggregate information in fuzzy ontologies in order to aid decision makers to find the most similar object in the ontology to a given case.

Leading Human Values in Complex Environments

The need to distribute leadership beyond top management is particularly pertinent in project-based organizations (PBOs). PBOs rely on semi-autonomic teams that provide their customers with the complex goods and services they have ordered. The teams are often faced with uncertainty both when it comes to changes in customer demands and in the surrounding (project) environment. In project management, a rigorous regime of planning, reporting and monitoring dominates coping with complexities and uncertainties. Disregarding the human aspect of management is a considerable disadvantage for organizations in terms of achieving functional collaboration within their networks, not to mention improved customer relations. We have developed a tool that offers project managers a robust framework for analyzing stakeholders and negotiating challenges related to them.

Intrusion Detection with Type-2 Fuzzy Ontologies and Similarity Measures

Intrusions carry a serious security risk for financial institutions. As new intrusion types appear continuously, detection systems have to be designed to be able to identify attacks that have never been experienced before. Insights provided by knowledgeable experts can contribute to a high extent to the identification of these anomalies. Based on a critical review of the relevant literature in intrusion detection and similarity measures of interval-valued fuzzy sets, we propose a framework based on fuzzy ontology and similarity measures to incorporate expert knowledge and represent and make use of imprecise information in the intrusion detection process. As an example we developed a fuzzy ontology based on the intrusion detection needs of a financial institution.

Designing a Decision Support System for Recommending Smartphones Using Fuzzy Ontologies

Nowadays, smartphones have become indispensable items for everybody. Thanks to them, people can communicate and access Internet at any time regardless of where they are located. New smartphones belonging to a high amount of labels and with different features and prices keep appearing constantly in the market. This way, there is a need of tools that help buyers to select and buy the smartphone that better fits their necessities. In this article, a decision support system build over a fuzzy ontology has been designed in order to help people to select the perfect smartphone for them. Linguistic labels are used in order to provide the buyer with a comfortable way of expressing himself/herself.

A Tool for Increased Cognitive Ergonomics in Operative Supplier Selection in a Global Context

In this chapter, we put forth a decision support system that aims to increase cognitive ergonomics of actual, routine sourcing praxis in operative procurement work. The tool is motivated by a lack of academic methods as well as practical tools for evaluating suppliers’ actual, tangible appropriateness for specific supply tasks, as opposed to the fit of a supplier in general, or on average. Furthermore, and importantly, this company-internal tool is intended to serve as a platform for a more extensive tool to organize inter-organizational buyer-supplier interaction practices. The tool is developed at a case company, a large marine product manufacturer with globally dispersed supplier and customer bases.