Introducing Intelligent Mutation Method Based on PSO Algorithm to Solve the Feature Selection Problem

Today, with the increase in data production volume, attention to machine learning algorithms to extract knowledge from raw data has increased. Raw data usually has redundant or irrelevant features that affect the performance of learning algorithms. Feature selection algorithms are used to improve efficiency and reduce the computational cost of machine learning algorithms. A variety of methods for selecting features are provided. Among the feature selection methods are evolutionary algorithms that have been considered because of their global optimization power. Many evolutionary algorithms have been proposed to solve the feature selection problem, most of which have focused on the target space. The problem space can also provide vital information for solving the feature selection problem. Since evolutionary algorithms suffer from the pain of not leaving the local optimal point, it is necessary to provide an effective mechanism for leaving the local optimal point. This paper uses the PSO evolutionary algorithm with a multi-objective function. In the proposed algorithm, a new mutation method that uses the particle feature score is proposed along with elitism to exit the local optimal points. The proposed algorithm is tested on different datasets and examined with existing algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed method has an error reduction of 20%, 11%, 85%, and 7% in the Isolet, Musk, Madelon, and Arrhythmia datasets, respectively, compared to the new RFPSOFS method.