Ant colony metaphor in a new clustering algorithm

Among the many bio-inspired techniques, ant clustering algorithms have received special attention, especially because they still require much investigation to improve performance, stability and other key features that would make such algorithms mature tools for data mining. Clustering with swarm-based algorithms is emerging as an alternative to more conventional clustering methods, such as k-means algorithm. This proposed approach mimics the clustering behavior observed in real ant colonies. As a case study, this paper focuses on the behavior of clustering procedures in this new approach. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a number of well-known benchmark data sets. Empirical results clearly show that the ant clustering algorithm (ACA) performs well when compared to other techniques.