Density Peaks Clustering Based on Weighted Density Estimating and Multicluster Merging

ABSTRACT Density peaks clustering (DPC) is a density‐based clustering algorithm that identifies cluster centres by constructing decision graphs and allocates noncluster centres. Although DPC does not require specifying cluster numbers in advance, the local density is affected by the distribution of data points. Meanwhile, allocating noncluster centres is likely to result in continuous errors. Hence, a novel DPC based on weighted density estimating and multicluster merging (DPC‐WDMM) is proposed. Firstly, a novel local density is defined by the nearest neighbour relationship. Then, to avoid incorrect selection of cluster centres, data points with relatively high local density are all marked within the local range. Finally, using these data points to represent microclusters for merging, the final clustering results can be obtained. The performance of this novel algorithm has been demonstrated through the experimental results on several datasets.