Clustering Multidimensional Data with PSO based Algorithm

Data clustering is a recognized data analysis method in data mining whereas K-Means is the well known partitional clustering method, possessing pleasant features. We observed that, K-Means and other partitional clustering techniques suffer from several limitations such as initial cluster centre selection, preknowledge of number of clusters, dead unit problem, multiple cluster membership and premature convergence to local optima. Several optimization methods are proposed in the literature in order to solve clustering limitations, but Swarm Intelligence (SI) has achieved its remarkable position in the concerned area. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is the most popular SI technique and one of the favorite areas of researchers. In this paper, we present a brief overview of PSO and applicability of its variants to solve clustering challenges. Also, we propose an advanced PSO algorithm named as Subtractive Clustering based Boundary Restricted Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (SC-BR-APSO) algorithm for clustering multidimensional data. For comparison purpose, we have studied and analyzed various algorithms such as K-Means, PSO, K-Means-PSO, Hybrid Subtractive + PSO, BRAPSO, and proposed algorithm on nine different datasets. The motivation behind proposing SC-BR-APSO algorithm is to deal with multidimensional data clustering, with minimum error rate and maximum convergence rate.