An Optimized DiscretizationApproach using k-Means Bat Algorithm

Abstract

This study has proposed arelatively new discretization approach using k-means and Bat algorithm in preparation phase of classification problem. In essence, bat algorithm is applied to find the best search space solution. Eventually, the best search space solution is utilized to produce cluster centroid. The cluster centroid is very useful to determine appropriate breakpoint for discretization. The proposed discretization approach is applied in the experiments with continuous datasets. Decision Tree, k-Nearest Neighbours and Naïve Bayes classifiers are used in the experiments. The proposed discretization approach is evaluated against other existing approaches: K-Means algorithm, hybrid K-Means with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and hybrid K-Means with Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA).The classification performance is evaluated in terms of accuracy, recall, f-measure and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC).  To test the performance of the proposed algorithm, nine benchmark continuous datasets are used. The proposed algorithm show the better results compare to other approaches. The proposed algorithm performs better in discretization to solve classification problems.