Incremental rough set approach for hierarchical multicriteria classification

Abstract Multicriteria classification refers to classify objects evaluated by a set of criteria to preference-ordered decision classes. Dominance-based rough set approach has been successfully introduced to express and reason inconsistencies with a dominance principle in multicriteria classification problems. Hierarchical attribute values exist extensively within many real-world applications, which provide a hierarchical form to organize, view and analyze data from different perspectives for accommodating the preference variability. In this study, we consider an extension of dominance-based rough set approach by applying an incremental learning technique for hierarchical multicriteria classification while attribute values dynamically vary across different levels of granulations. We formalize the dynamic characteristics of knowledge granules with the cut refinement and coarsening through attribute value taxonomies in the hierarchical multicriteria decision systems. In consequence, incremental algorithms for computing dominance-based rough approximations of preference-ordered decision classes are developed by applying the resulted prior-knowledge as the input, and only recomputing those outputs which depend on the changed attribute values. This paper presents the theoretical foundation of the proposed approach. Example analysis and experimental evaluation are also provided for illustration of the feasibility and efficiency.