Automatic Genetic Fuzzy c-Means

Abstract

Fuzzy c-means is an efficient algorithm that is amply used for data clustering. Nonetheless, when using this algorithm, the designer faces two crucial choices: choosing the optimal number of clusters and initializing the cluster centers. The two choices have a direct impact on the clustering outcome. This paper presents an improved algorithm called automatic genetic fuzzy c-means that evolves the number of clusters and provides the initial centroids. The proposed algorithm uses a genetic algorithm with a new crossover operator, a new mutation operator, and modified tournament selection; further, it defines a new fitness function based on three cluster validity indices. Real data sets are used to demonstrate the effectiveness, in terms of quality, of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords

• genetic algorithms
• unsupervised learning
• fuzzy clustering
• evolutionary algorithms
• gravitational search
• differential evolution