An interval weighed fuzzy c-means clustering by genetically guided alternating optimization

• Interval attribute weights are proposed and introduced for fuzzy clustering.
• Genetic mechanism and gradient-based iteration constitute optimization strategy.
• Data partition and weights can be obtained by minimizing the objective function.
• Reasonable clustering results can be achieved more easily.

The fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm is a widely applied clustering technique, but the implicit assumption that each attribute of the object data has equal importance affects the clustering performance. At present, attribute weighted fuzzy clustering has became a very active area of research, and numerous approaches that develop numerical weights have been combined into fuzzy clustering. In this paper, interval number is introduced for attribute weighting in the weighted fuzzy c-means (WFCM) clustering, and it is illustrated that interval weighting can obtain appropriate weights more easily from the viewpoint of geometric probability. Moreover, a genetic heuristic strategy for attribute weight searching is proposed to guide the alternating optimization (AO) of WFCM, and improved attribute weights in interval-constrained ranges and reasonable data partition can be obtained simultaneously. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior in clustering performance. It reveals that the interval weighted clustering can act as an optimization operator on the basis of the traditional numerical weighted clustering, and the effects of interval weight perturbation on clustering performance can be decreased.