A fuzzy TOPSIS method for robot selection

A fuzzy TOPSIS method for robot selection is proposed, where the ratings of various alternatives versus various subjective criteria and the weights of all criteria are assessed in linguistic terms represented by fuzzy numbers. The values of objective criteria are converted into dimensionless indices to ensure compatibility between the values of objective criteria and the linguistic ratings of subjective criteria. The membership function of each weighted rating is developed by interval arithmetic of fuzzy numbers. To avoid complicated aggregation of fuzzy numbers, these weighted ratings are defuzzified into crisp values by the ranking method of mean of removals. A closeness coefficient is defined to determine the ranking order of alternatives by calculating the distances to both the ideal and negative-ideal solutions. A numerical example demonstrates the computational process Of the proposed method.