Tuning fuzzy membership functions to improve value of information calculations

A major tenet of the US Army´s data-to-decision initiative and a primary challenge for military commanders and their staff is the ability to shorten the cycle time from data gathering to making decisions. Paramount to this process is the ability to better assess the applicability and relevance of information for decisions in complex military environments. Towards this end, the Army Research Laboratory, in collaboration with Towson University, has embarked on a research initiative to experimentally characterize how analysts perceive the value of information (VoI) and subsequently model and test solutions. This paper presents the process used to extend the current fuzzy VoI system to allow user-defined membership functions that consider various domain decompositions using both triangular and trapezoidal fuzzy sets, and the assessment of their efficacy to current military operations.