Cascade AdaBoost Neural Network Classifier: Analysis and Design

In this paper, we propose a cascade AdaBoost neural network (CANN) based on concepts and construct of AdaBoost neurons and cascade structure. Compared with AdaBoost, CANN can represent complex relationships between features. In CANN, representation learning is performed through AdaBoost, and the method of random selection features is utilized to encourage the diversity of AdaBoost neurons. Through the cascade structure, CANN has the context structure for complex feature representation. At the same time, in order to avoid the problem of feature disappearance, shortcut connection is used to add the previous information to the later nodes. Furthermore, particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is utilized to optimize the structure of CANN, it can obtain the number of iterations to achieve better performance. Two types of CANN are proposed based — binary-classification CANN (BCANN) or multi-classification CANN (MCANN). The performance of CANN is evaluated with two kinds of data sets: machine learning data sets and atrial fibrillation data set. A comparative analysis illustrates that the proposed CANN leads to better performance than the models reported in the literature.