Training label cleaning with ant colony optimization for classification of remote sensing imagery

This paper presents an original approach for improving performances of the supervised classifiers in remote sensing imagery by proposing a technique to refine a given training set using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The new method called ACO-Training Label Cleaning (ACO-TLC) applies ACO model for selection of the significant training samples from a given set of labeled vectors in order to optimize the quality of a supervised classifier. This means to retain the most informative samples and to remove the uncertain or misclassified training samples, which lead to classification errors. As a result of the selection process, we can obtain a purified training set. The proposed model is implemented and evaluated using a LANDSAT 7 ETM+ image. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.