Conjunctive and disjunctive combination of belief functions induced by nondistinct bodies of evidence

Dempster's rule plays a central role in the theory of belief functions. However, it assumes the combined bodies of evidence to be distinct, an assumption which is not always verified in practice. In this paper, a new operator, the cautious rule of combination, is introduced. This operator is commutative, associative and idempotent. This latter property makes it suitable to combine belief functions induced by reliable, but possibly overlapping bodies of evidence. A dual operator, the bold disjunctive rule, is also introduced. This operator is also commutative, associative and idempotent, and can be used to combine belief functions issues from possibly overlapping and unreliable sources. Finally, the cautious and bold rules are shown to be particular members of infinite families of conjunctive and disjunctive combination rules based on triangular norms and conorms. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.