Two techniques of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of fuzzy expert systems

Problems characterized by qualitative uncertainty described by expert judgments can be addressed by the fuzzy logic modeling paradigm, structured within a so-called fuzzy expert system (FES) to handle and propagate the qualitative, linguistic assessments by the experts. Once constructed, the FES model should be verified to make sure that it represents correctly the experts' knowledge. For FES verification, typically there is not enough data to support and compare directly the expert- and FES-inferred solutions. Thus, there is the necessity to develop indirect methods for determining whether the expert system model provides a proper representation of the expert knowledge. A possible way to proceed is to examine the importance of the different input factors in determining the Output of the FES model and to verify whether it is in agreement with the expert conceptualization of the model. In this view, two sensitivity and uncertainty analysis techniques applicable to generic FES models are proposed in this paper with the objective of providing appropriate tools of verification in support of the experts in the FES design phase. To analyze the insights gained by using the proposed techniques, a case study concerning a FES developed in the field of human reliability analysis has been considered. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.