Building nearest prototype classifiers using a Michigan approach PSO

This paper presents an application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to continuous classification problems, using a Michigan approach. In this work, PSO is used to process training data to find a reduced set of prototypes to be used to classify the patterns, maintaining or increasing the accuracy of the Nearest Neighbor classifiers. The Michigan approach PSO represents each prototype by a particle and uses modified movement rules with particle competition and cooperation that ensure particle diversity. The result is that the particles are able to recognize clusters, find decision boundaries and achieve stable situations that also retain adaptation potential. The proposed method is tested both with artificial problems and with three real benchmark problems with quite promising results.