Nonlinear strict distance and similarity measures for intuitionistic fuzzy sets with applications to pattern classification and medical diagnosis

In this paper, we propose a new type of nonlinear strict distance and similarity measures for intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). Our proposed methods not only have good properties, but also improve the drawbacks proposed by Mahanta and Panda (Int J Intell Syst 36(2):615–627, 2021) in which, for example, their distance value of d_MP ( ⟨μ,ν⟩, ⟨0,0⟩ ) is always equal to the maximum value 1 for any intuitionistic fuzzy number ⟨μ, ν⟩ ≠ ⟨ 0 , 0 ⟩ . To resolve these problems in Mahanta and Panda (Int J Intell Syst 36(2):615–627, 2021), we establish a nonlinear parametric distance measure for IFSs and prove that it satisfies the axiomatic definition of strict intuitionistic fuzzy distances and preserves all advantages of distance measures. In particular, our proposed distance measure can effectively distinguish different IFSs with high hesitancy. Meanwhile, we obtain that the dual similarity measure and the induced entropy of our proposed distance measure satisfy the axiomatic definitions of strict intuitionistic fuzzy similarity measure and intuitionistic fuzzy entropy. Finally, we apply our proposed distance and similarity measures to pattern classification, decision making on the choice of a proper antivirus face mask for COVID-19, and medical diagnosis problems, to illustrate the effectiveness of the new methods. © 2023, Springer Nature Limited.