Maximum relevant minimum redundant multi-label feature selection using ant colony optimization

Multi-label learning tasks involve instances that may belong to multiple categories simultaneously, making feature selection particularly challenging in high-dimensional feature spaces. Existing multi-label feature selection methods often suffer from limitations such as high computational complexity, inadequate handling of feature redundancy, and insufficient modelling of label dependencies. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel framework called Maximum Relevant Minimum Redundant Multi-Label Feature Selection (MR2MLFS), which integrates a two-layer graph representation with a modified Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) strategy. The first graph layer clusters correlated features using Louvain community detection, while the second constructs a meta-graph to model inter-cluster relationships. ACO then explores this structure, favouring the selection of highly relevant and non-redundant features. To reduce computational overhead, we introduce an information-theoretic metric that estimates both feature-label relevance and feature-feature redundancy, eliminating the need for repeated classifier training during the search. We evaluated the proposed method on ten benchmark multi-label datasets using several multi-label classifiers. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms six state-of-the-art methods across multiple evaluation metrics, achieving an average relative improvement of 5–12 % while reducing feature dimensionality by up to 80 %. These results confirm the method's robustness, efficiency, and effectiveness in multi-label feature selection. • A filter-based multi-label feature selection method using ACO is proposed. • Feature space is mapped to a multi-layer graph for efficient search. • A modified ACO strategy was proposed to balance between local and global search. • An information-theoretic metric evaluates feature subsets without the need for classifiers. • Computational efficiency is enhanced via a two-layered graph structure.