A Global-best Harmony Search based Gradient Descent Learning FLANN (GbHS-GDL-FLANN) for data classification

While dealing with real world data for classification using ANNs, it is often difficult to determine the optimal ANN classification model with fast convergence. Also, it is laborious to adjust the set of weights of ANNs by using appropriate learning algorithm to obtain better classification accuracy. In this paper, a variant of Harmony Search (HS), called Global-best Harmony Search along with Gradient Descent Learning is used with Functional Link Artificial Neural Network (FLANN) for classification task in data mining. The Global-best Harmony Search (GbHS) uses the concepts of Particle Swarm Optimization from Swarm Intelligence to improve the qualities of harmonies. The problem solving strategies of Global-best Harmony Search along with searching capabilities of Gradient Descent Search are used to obtain optimal set of weight for FLANN. The proposed method (GbHS-GDL-FLANN) is implemented in MATLAB and compared with other alternatives (FLANN, GA based FLANN, PSO based FLANN, HS based FLANN, Improved HS based FLANN, Self Adaptive HS based FLANN, MLP, SVM and FSN). The GbHS-GDL-FLANN is tested on benchmark datasets from UCI Machine Learning repository by using 5-fold cross validation technique. The proposed method is analyzed under null-hypothesis by using Friedman Test, Holm and Hochberg Procedure and Post-Hoc ANOVA Statistical Analysis (Tukey Test & Dunnett Test) for statistical analysis and validity of results. Simulation results reveal that the performance of the proposed GbHS-GDL-FLANN is better and statistically significant from other alternatives.