Evolving Ensemble Fuzzy Classifier

The concept of ensemble learning offers a promising avenue in learning from data streams under complex environments because it addresses the bias and variance dilemma better than its single model counterpart and features a reconfigurable structure, which is well suited to the given context. While various extensions of ensemble learning for mining non-stationary data streams can be found in the literature, most of them are crafted under a static base classifier and revisits preceding samples in the sliding window for a retraining step. This feature causes computationally prohibitive complexity and is not flexible enough to cope with rapidly changing environments. Their complexities are often demanding because it involves a large collection of offline classifiers due to the absence of structural complexities reduction mechanisms and lack of an online feature selection mechanism. A novel evolving ensemble classifier, namely Parsimonious Ensemble pENsemble, is proposed in this paper. pENsemble differs from existing architectures in the fact that it is built upon an evolving classifier from data streams, termed Parsimonious Classifier pClass. pENsemble is equipped by an ensemble pruning mechanism, which estimates a localized generalization error of a base classifier. A dynamic online feature selection scenario is integrated into the pENsemble. This method allows for dynamic selection and deselection of input features on the fly. pENsemble adopts a dynamic ensemble structure to output a final classification decision where it features a novel drift detection scenario to grow the ensemble structure. The efficacy of the pENsemble has been numerically demonstrated through rigorous numerical studies with dynamic and evolving data streams where it delivers the most encouraging performance in attaining a tradeoff between accuracy and complexity.Comment: this paper has been published by IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy System

Online Tool Condition Monitoring Based on Parsimonious Ensemble+

Accurate diagnosis of tool wear in metal turning process remains an open challenge for both scientists and industrial practitioners because of inhomogeneities in workpiece material, nonstationary machining settings to suit production requirements, and nonlinear relations between measured variables and tool wear. Common methodologies for tool condition monitoring still rely on batch approaches which cannot cope with a fast sampling rate of metal cutting process. Furthermore they require a retraining process to be completed from scratch when dealing with a new set of machining parameters. This paper presents an online tool condition monitoring approach based on Parsimonious Ensemble+, pENsemble+. The unique feature of pENsemble+ lies in its highly flexible principle where both ensemble structure and base-classifier structure can automatically grow and shrink on the fly based on the characteristics of data streams. Moreover, the online feature selection scenario is integrated to actively sample relevant input attributes. The paper presents advancement of a newly developed ensemble learning algorithm, pENsemble+, where online active learning scenario is incorporated to reduce operator labelling effort. The ensemble merging scenario is proposed which allows reduction of ensemble complexity while retaining its diversity. Experimental studies utilising real-world manufacturing data streams and comparisons with well known algorithms were carried out. Furthermore, the efficacy of pENsemble was examined using benchmark concept drift data streams. It has been found that pENsemble+ incurs low structural complexity and results in a significant reduction of operator labelling effort.Comment: this paper has been published by IEEE Transactions on Cybernetic

A concept drift-tolerant case-base editing technique

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The evolving nature and accumulating volume of real-world data inevitably give rise to the so-called "concept drift" issue, causing many deployed Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) systems to require additional maintenance procedures. In Case-base Maintenance (CBM), case-base editing strategies to revise the case-base have proven to be effective instance selection approaches for handling concept drift. Motivated by current issues related to CBR techniques in handling concept drift, we present a two-stage case-base editing technique. In Stage 1, we propose a Noise-Enhanced Fast Context Switch (NEFCS) algorithm, which targets the removal of noise in a dynamic environment, and in Stage 2, we develop an innovative Stepwise Redundancy Removal (SRR) algorithm, which reduces the size of the case-base by eliminating redundancies while preserving the case-base coverage. Experimental evaluations on several public real-world datasets show that our case-base editing technique significantly improves accuracy compared to other case-base editing approaches on concept drift tasks, while preserving its effectiveness on static tasks

Handling Concept Drift in the Context of Expensive Labels

Machine learning has been successfully applied to a wide range of prediction problems, yet its application to data streams can be complicated by concept drift. Existing approaches to handling concept drift are overwhelmingly reliant on the assumption that it is possible to obtain the true label of an instance shortly after classification at a negligible cost. The aim of this thesis is to examine, and attempt to address, some of the problems related to handling concept drift when the cost of obtaining labels is high. This thesis presents Decision Value Sampling (DVS), a novel concept drift handling approach which periodically chooses a small number of the most useful instances to label. The newly labelled instances are then used to re-train the classifier, an SVM with a linear kernel, to handle any change in concept that might occur. In this way, only the instances that are required to keep the classifier up-to-date are labelled. The evaluation of the system indicates that a classifier can be kept up-to-date with changes in concept while only requiring 15% of the data stream to be labelled. In a data stream with a high throughput this represents a significant reduction in the number of labels required. The second novel concept drift handling approach proposed in this thesis is Confidence Distribution Batch Detection (CDBD). CDBD uses a heuristic based on the distribution of an SVM’s confidence in its predictions to decide when to rebuild the clas- sifier. The evaluation shows that CDBD can be used to reliably detect when a change in concept has taken place and that concept drift can be handled if the classifier is rebuilt when CDBD sig- nals a change in concept. The evaluation also shows that CDBD obtains a considerable labels saving as it only requires labelled data when a change in concept has been detected. The two concept drift handling approaches deal with concept drift in a different manner, DVS continuously adapts the clas- sifier, whereas CDBD only adapts the classifier when a sizeable change in concept is suspected. They reflect a divide also found in the literature, between continuous rebuild approaches (like DVS) and triggered rebuild approaches (like CDBD). The final major contribution in this thesis is a comparison between continuous and triggered rebuild approaches, as this is an underexplored area. An empirical comparison between representative techniques from both types of approaches shows that triggered rebuild works slightly better on large datasets where the changes in concepts occur infrequently, but in general a continuous rebuild approach works the best