Multiobjective linguistic optimization

Generalizing our earlier results on optimization with linguistic variables we introduce a novel statement of fuzzy multiobjective mathematical programming problems and provide a method for finding a fair solution to these problems. Suppose we are given a multiobjective mathematical programming problem in which the functional relationship between the decision variables and the objective functions is not completely known. Our knowledge-base consists of a block of fuzzy if-then rules, where the antecedent part of the rules contains some linguistic values of the decision variables, and the consequence part consists of a linguistic value of the objective functions. We suggest the use of Tsukamoto's fuzzy reasoning method to determine the crisp functional relationship between the decision variables and objective functions. We model the anding of the objective functions by a t-norm and solve the resulting (usually nonlinear) programming problem to find a fair optimal solution to the original fuzzy multiobjective problem. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.