Improving the performance of the FCM algorithm in clustering using the DBSCAN algorithm

• Published in: Iranian journal of numerical analysis and optimization Vol. 13; no. Issue 4; pp. 763 - 774
• Main Authors: S. Barkhordari Firozabadi, S.A. Shahzadeh Fazeli, J. Zarepour Ahmadabadi, S.M. Karbassi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 01-12-2023
• Subjects: clustering; dbscan; fuzzy clustering
• ISSN: 2423-6977; 2423-6969
• DOI: 10.22067/ijnao.2023.82361.1260

The fuzzy-C-means (FCM) algorithm is one of the most famous fuzzy clus-tering algorithms, but it gets stuck in local optima. In addition, this algo-rithm requires the number of clusters. Also, the density-based spatial of the application with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm, which is a density-based clus-tering algorithm, unlike the FCM algorithm, should not be pre-numbered. If the clusters are specific and depend on the number of clusters, then it can determine the number of clusters. Another advantage of the DBSCAN clus-tering algorithm over FCM is its ability to cluster data of different shapes. In this paper, in order to overcome these limitations, a hybrid approach for clustering is proposed, which uses FCM and DBSCAN algorithms. In this method, the optimal number of clusters and the optimal location for the centers of the clusters are determined based on the changes that take place according to the data set in three phases by predicting the possibility of the problems stated in the FCM algorithm. With this improvement, the values of none of the initial parameters of the FCM algorithm are random, and in the first phase, it has been tried to replace these random values to the optimal in the FCM algorithm, which has a significant effect on the convergence of the algorithm because it helps to reduce iterations. The proposed method has been examined on the Iris flower and compared the results with basic FCM   algorithm and another algorithm. Results shows the better performance of the proposed method.