A generic framework for resolving the conflict in the combination of belief structures

Within the framework of Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence, the data fusion is based on the building of single belief mass by combination of several mass functions resulting from distinct information sources. This combination called Dempster´s combination rule (or orthogonal sum) has several interesting mathematical properties like commutativity or associativity. Unfortunately, it badly manages the existing conflict between the various information sources at the step of normalization. In this paper, we introduce traditional combination operators used within the framework of evidence theory. We propose other combination operators allowing an arbitrary redistribution of the conflicting mass on the propositions. These various combinations operators were tested on sets of synthetic and real masses.