A Centroid-based Ranking Method of Trapezoidal Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers and Its Application to MCDM Problems

The objective of this paper is to introduce a novel method to compare trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TrIFNs). Till now little research has been done regarding the ranking of TrIFNs. This paper first reviews the existing ranking methods and shows their drawbacks by using several examples. In order to overcome the drawbacks of the existing methods, a new ranking method of TrIFNs is developed by utilizing the concept of centroid point. For this purpose, centroid point for TrIFN is also defined. The rationality validation of the proposed centroid formulae is proved. Further, the ranking method is applied to a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem in which the ratings of the alternatives on criteria are expressed with TrIFNs. Finally, the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed ranking method are illustrated with an aerospace research organization center selection example. This article has also justified the proposed approach by analyzing a comparative study.