Development of a multi expert multi-criteria intuitionistic fuzzy AHP & TOPSIS methodology Transformation of intuitionistic fuzzy sets into interval-valued fuzzy sets Application in a real life surgical robot selection problem, and comparison & sensitivity analysesIn recent years, the extensions of ordinary fuzzy sets have been studied by many researchers. Many extensions have been introduced over a 45 year period. The aim of the fuzzy set extensions is to let decision makers define membership, non-membership and hesitancy functions in a larger domain. In the literature, the relations between these extensions and transformations between fuzzy set extensions have not been discussed sufficiently. In Figure A, the structure of the proposed methodology is illustrated.
Figure A. Structure of the proposed methodologyPurpose: In this study, it is aimed to contribute to the literature by analyzing the relationships and transformation processes between intuitionistic fuzzy sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets. This transformation was carried out using an integrated fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS methodology. Besides these, the literature review has showed that there is no study analyzing surgical robot selection problem with fuzzy MCDM methods. Thus, in this respect the study aims to be first in the literature.
Theory and Methods:In the application section, the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy integrated AHP&TOPSIS methodology is applied to a real life surgery robot evaluation and selection problem. Herein, transformation operation between triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and interval-valued triangular fuzzy numbers is presented.
Results:The proposed integrated fuzzy MCDM methodology solved the real life surgical robot evaluation problem successfully. The ranking of the robots planned to be used in robotic knee surgeries and the obtained criterion weights were shared with the hospital and the presented have been found to be consistent to their expectations. The results were also compared with the ones of classical AHP&TOPSIS, type-2 AHP&TOPSIS and intuitionistic fuzzy AHP&TOPSIS methodologies. A sensitivity analysis was also performed and the findings have demonstrated that the proposed methodology provides robust and reliable results.
Conclusion:The study introduced an integrated fuzzy AHP&TOPSIS methodology in which triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers were converted to interval-valued fuzzy sets without any data loss. The proposed fuzzy MCDM methodology was applied to a real life knee surgery robot selection problem. The observed results were found to be compatible with the hospital's expectations.