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

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.