A new distance between two bodies of evidence

Abstract We present a measure of performance (MOP) for identification algorithms based on the evidential theory of Dempster–Shafer. As an MOP, we introduce a principled distance between two basic probability assignments (BPAs) (or two bodies of evidence) based on a quantification of the similarity between sets. We give a geometrical interpretation of BPA and show that the proposed distance satisfies all the requirements for a metric. We also show the link with the quantification of Dempster's weight of conflict proposed by George and Pal. We compare this MOP to that described by Fixsen and Mahler and illustrate the behaviors of the two MOPs with numerical examples.