Metaheuristic Pattern Clustering – An Overview

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview to the data clustering techniques, based on naturally-inspired metaheuristic algorithms. At first the clustering problem, similarity and dissimilarity measures between patterns and the methods of cluster validation are presented in a formal way. A few classical clustering algorithms are also addressed. The chapter then discusses the relevance of population-based approach with a focus on evolutionary computing in pattern clustering and outlines the most promising evolutionary clustering methods. The chapter ends with a discussion on the automatic clustering problem, which remains largely unsolved by most of the traditional clustering algorithms.