Optimizing connection weights of functional link neural network using APSO algorithm for medical data classification

Abstract Classification is a common problem in various fields of life, and the key challenging task in data mining. The primary objective of the classification process to classify the given dataset in a defined class label for all data. Many research papers widely used classification in the medical sector. Various researches have been carried out to classify medical data using different techniques, such as High Order Neural Network (HONN) combined with Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) as a learning algorithm. Due to the increased data complexity, the back-propagation algorithm faced problems of slow convergence. The Back-Propagation (BP) using the gradient descent technique has the possibility of getting stuck in local minima. So, the BP algorithm may cause difficulties in finding the global minima of the error function. This paper proposed a high-order Functional Link Neural Network (FLNN). The proposed FLNN model is integrated with a metaheuristic-based searching algorithm called Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO). The performance of the proposed Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization Functional Link Neural Network (APSOFLNN) model is validated with various medical datasets and compared to traditional techniques such as the proposed Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization Functional Link Back-Propagation (APSOFLBP), and Artificial Bee Colony Functional Link Neural Network (ABCFLNN). The simulation results showed that the proposed APSOFLNN algorithm for the used benchmarked datasets shows good results in terms of the mean square error (MSE) and accuracy in comparison to the traditional techniques.