“…The reliability evaluation and optimization of MSSs have been extensively studied by many scholars since they have proven to be more precisely than the classical reliability theory of the binary state systems in process of the lifedegradation. Based on the reliability theory of MSSs, a variety of multi-state reliability models with traditional system configurations are studied, including multi-state seriesparallel systems [5][6], multi-state k-out-of-n systems [7] and multi-state network systems [8]. Beyond that, some extended MSSs of the specific configurations can also be found in reliability engineering field, e.g., fuzzy multi-state systems [9], multi-state phased mission systems [10], multi-state power grid systems [11][12][13] and so on.…”