A HIGH-LEVEL FUZZY PETRI NETS MODEL FOR INTEGRATING QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DECISION-MAKING

摘要

A complicated decision-making system usually requires both quantitative and qualitative decision-making tools to collaborate for reaping their benefits concurrently. How to integrate quantitative and qualitative decision-making formalisms with a modeling tool is the focus of this study; hence, a high-level fuzzy Petri net model (HLFPN) is proposed as a unified platform to incorporate fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) with fuzzy logic for managing semi-structured decision-making. In the HLFPN model, fuzzy places, fuzzy tokens, weighted arcs and several types of transitions are introduced for the purpose of combining both the FAHP and fuzzy logic. Four types of transitions are identified: (1) synthesis transitions to execute the computation of FAHP; (2) inference transitions to perform fuzzy reasoning; (3) aggregation transitions to combine several fuzzy tokens with the same fuzzy variable; and (4) duplication transitions to reproduce a token as several tokens having the same value. To guide the evolution of the HLFPN, an algorithm is also developed. An example of evaluation the environmental sustainability in 146 countries is used to illustrate the use of the HLFPN for coupling the FAHP and fuzzy logic.