Modeling evidence fusion rules by means of referee functions

This paper defines a new concept and framework for constructing fusion rules for evidences. This framework is based on a referee function, which does a decisional arbitrament conditionally to basic decisions provided by the several sources of information. A simple sampling method is derived from this framework. The purpose of this sampling approach is to avoid the combinatorics which are inherent to the definition of fusion rules of evidences. This definition of the fusion rule by the means of a sampling process makes possible the construction of several rules on the basis of an algorithmic implementation of the referee function, instead of a mathematical formulation. Incidentally, it is a versatile and intuitive way for defining rules. The framework is implemented for various well known evidence rules. On the basis of this framework, new rules for combining evidences are proposed, which takes into account a consensual evaluation of the sources of information.