An Adaptive Flocking Algorithm for Performing Approximate Clustering

This paper presents an approach based on an adaptive bio-inspired method to make state of the art clustering algorithms scalable and to provide them with an anytime behavior. The method is based on the biology-inspired paradigm of a flock of birds, i.e. a population of simple agents interacting locally with each other and with the environment. The flocking algorithm provides a model of decentralized adaptive organization useful to solve complex optimization, classification and distributed control problems. This approach avoids the sequential search of canonical clustering algorithms and permits a scalable implementation. The method is applied to design two novel clustering algorithms based on the main principles of two popular clustering algorithms: DBSCAN and SNN. This apporach can identify clusters of widely varying shapes and densities and is able to extract an approximate view of the clusters whenever it is required. Both the algorithms have been evaluated on synthetic and real-world data sets and the impact of the flocking strategy on performance has been evaluated.