An introduction to the arithmetic of Z-numbers by using horizontal membership functions

Abstract

As a theoretical basis of computation with imprecise and partially reliable information, arithmetic of Z-numbers should be developed with an emphasis of informativeness. In this paper we propose an approach to develop arithmetic of Z-numbers where a result of computation can be obtained with a predefined informativeness level. The proposed approach is based on the use of horizontal membership functions and a measure of specificity concept. An example is used to show validity of the approach.