An Improved RPCL Algorithm for Determining Clustering Number Automatically

Conventional k-means needs to know the exact cluster number before performing data clustering. Otherwise, it may lead to a poor clustering performance. The rival penalized competitive learning algorithm (RPCL) can automatically select the correct cluster number, but it is sensitive to the learning rate and the de-learning rate especially the de leaning rate. This paper presents an improved RPCL algorithm, which is based on the evaluation of competition ability between the winner and the rival, the improved RPCL algorithm could determining clustering number without the selecting of de learning rate. Our experiments have shown that this improved algorithm can find out the correct clustering number more quickly and convenient than RPCL algorithm