where σ
∗
−i
refers to all strategies except those chosen
by the player i.
In our setting, fuzzy Nash equilibria can be ob-
tained (Sbabou et al., 2012) by the ranking of re-
sources at the end of the TOPSIS procedure
2
.
In the coming section, an example is introduced
to illustrate the TOPSIS procedure and to show the
computation process of fuzzy Nash equilibria.
4 ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
Consider the following symmetric
3
singleton conges-
tion game, applied in a routing problem: there are
three drivers (players) who want to reach a destina-
tion and three roads (resources). Each driver chooses
the path between his origin and destination in such a
way that his utility is maximized. He must choose
only one resource and all drivers have the same utility
function which is non-increasing and depends on the
number of drivers making the same choice. The pay-
off matrix is common for all drivers and the payoff of
each of them is determined through the principle: ‘I
earn much more when I am the only person to take
this road’.
In reality, however, it is very difficult to have
the traffic situation at one’s finger tips. Human
perception and intuitive judgement play an important
role in route choices. Therefore, it is impossible to
have a precise estimation of the payoff of each driver.
Example 1. Let
e
Γ(N, R, (eu
i
)
i∈N
) be a symmetric
fuzzy singleton congestion game with N = {1, 2, 3},
R = {a, b, c} and such that 3a ≺ 2a ≺ a, 3b ≺ 2b ≺ b,
3c ≺ 2c ≺ c.
The drivers’ payoff functions can be estimated,
but not very precisely. Suppose that they have the fol-
lowing conception of the game : ‘If I choose road a
my payoff is as much as 10, if I choose b my utility
and approximately 8 and if I opt for c my utility is no
less than 9. Once I am alone on the road, it is great
for me (VH). However, sharing the road with some-
one else is less nice (H). If I share road a with one
more person my payoff is approximately 7, if both of
us choose b my payoff is at least 6, otherwise my util-
ity is no less than 7. Finally, if we are three to go from
road a my payoff is as much as 1, if we choose b my
payoff is at most 2 and if we select resource c my util-
2
For detailed information about fuzzy Nash equilibria in
noncooperative games, please refer to (Billot, 1992).
3
In a nonsymmetric singleton congestion game the pro-
cedure works in the same way.
ity is as much as 5. In this case my trip is of medium
quality (M).’
It can be easily understood that in this context
the payoff values cannot be denoted by real numbers.
However, fuzzy numbers can describe this kind of
fuzzy information as well as the importance weights
of various criteria. In Section 3 we raised the question
of how we can rank such fuzzy data and the answer
was by applying the TOPSIS procedure with fuzzy
data. The proposed method is currently applied to
the game
e
Γ and the computational procedure is dia-
grammed below.
Step 1: Construct the fuzzy decision matrix.
Driver 1/2/3
a b c
C
1
(5, 10, 15) (6, 8, 10) (7, 9, 11)
C
2
(5, 7, 9) (2, 6, 10) (5, 7, 9)
C
3
(0.5, 1, 1.5) (1, 2, 3) (3, 5, 7)
Step 2: The drivers evaluate the importance weight
of each criterion in linguistic terms and present it be-
low. Then, the linguistic evaluation is converted into
triangular fuzzy numbers according to Table 1
4
.
Driver 1/2/3
C
1
VH
C
2
H
C
3
M
Step 3: Construct the normalized fuzzy decision ma-
trix, common for all drivers
5
.
a b c
C
1
(0.33, 0.67, 1) (0.4, 0.53, 0.67) (0.47, 0.6,0.73)
C
2
(0.5, 0.7, 0.9) (0.2, 0.6, 1) (0.5, 0.7, 0.9)
C
3
(0.07, 0.14, 0.21) (0.14, 0.29, 0.43) (0.43, 0.71, 1)
Step 4: Construct the weighted normalized fuzzy de-
cision matrix.
a b c
C
1
(0.26, 0.67, 1) (0.32,0.53, 0.67) (0.38, 0.6, 0.73)
C
2
(0.35, 0.56, 0.81) (0.14, 0.48, 0.9) (0.35, 0.56, 0.81)
C
3
(0.03, 0.07, 0.13) (0.06, 0.15, 0.26) (0.17, 0.36, 0.6)
Step 5: Determine the fuzzy positive
and fuzzy negative ideal solutions as :
e
V
+
= [(1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 1)] and
e
V
−
=
[(0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0)].
Step 6 & 7: Calculate the distance of each resource
from the fuzzy positive (DFP) and fuzzy negative
4
If the game was nonsymmetric each player would have
his own decision matrix and importance weight of each cri-
terion.
5
In this example we deal with benefit criteria as we make
use of utilities.
FuzzySingletonCongestionGames
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