An Introduction to Different Methods of Clustering In Machine

Learning

Rashmi Karan
Manager - Co ntent

Updated on Dec 24, 2021 10:35 IST

Clustering in Machine Learning is a technique that involves the clustering of data
points. In any data set, clustering algorithms are used to classify each data point
into a specific cluster. Theoretically, data points in the same cluster should have
similar properties and/or characteristics, while data points in different clusters should
have very different properties and/or characteristics. Clustering is an Unsupervised
Machine Learning method and is a very popular statistical data analysis
methodology.

Clustering has also found its way deep in data science and machine learning where it
is used to cluster the data points using clustering algorithms and gain useful insights.
This article covers 5 different clustering methods in machine learning , which are –“

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
 Hierarchical Clustering

Partitioning Clustering

Fuzzy Clustering

Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN)

Distribution Model-Based Clustering

To learn about machine learning, read our blog – What is machine learning?

Hierarchical Clustering

In hierarchical methods, individuals are not divided into clusters at once, but rather
successive partitions are made at “different levels of aggregation or grouping”.
Hierarchical Clustering is subdivided into two types –

Agglomerative clustering (bottom-up) – Clustering begins at the base of the tree,

where each observation forms an individual cluster. The clusters are combined as
the structure grows to converge in a single central “branch”.

Divisive clustering (top-down) – It is the opposite strategy to agglomerative

clustering, which starts with all the observations contained in the same cluster, and
divisions occur until each observation forms an individual cluster.

Must Read – Top 10 Machine Learning Algorithms for Beginners

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
Establishing a hierarchical classification implies being able to make a series of
partitions of the total set of individuals

W = {i 1, i 2,…, i N }; so that there are partitions at different levels that add (or
disaggregate, if it is a divisive method) to the partitions of the lower levels.

Explore ML courses

The representation of the hierarchy of clusters obtained is usually carried out by

means of a diagram in the form of an inverted tree called a “dendrogram”, in which
the successive mergers of the branches at the different levels inform us of the
successive mergers of the groups in higher-level groups (larger size, less
homogeneity) successively.

You May Like to Learn About Confusion Matrix in Machine Learning

Partitioning Clustering

Partitioning Clustering algorithms generate multiple partitions and then evaluate

them according to defined criteria. They are also known as non-hierarchical since

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
each instance is placed in exactly one of k mutually exclusive clusters.

Since only one set of clusters is the output of a typical partition cluster algorithm,
the user is required to enter the desired number of clusters (usually called k). One of
the most widely used partition clustering algorithms is the k-means clustering
algorithm.

The user must provide the number of clusters (k) before starting and the algorithm
first initializes the centers (or centroids) of the k partitions. Simply put, the k-means
clustering algorithm then assigns members based on current centers and re-
estimates centers based on current members.

Must Read – Statistical Methods Every Data Scientist Should Know

How K-Means works

The algorithm works iteratively to assign each “point” (the rows of our input set form
a coordinate) one of the “K” groups based on its characteristics. They are grouped
based on the similarity of their features (the columns). As a result of executing the

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
algorithm we will have:
T he “centroids” of each group will be the “coordinates” of each of the K sets that will be
used to label new samples.

Labels f or the training dataset. Each label belonging to one of the K groups was f ormed.

The groups are defined in an organic way, that is, their position is adjusted in each
iteration of the process until the algorithm converges. Once the centroids are found,
we must analyze them to see what their unique characteristics are, compared to
that of the other groups. These groups are the labels that the algorithm generates.

Fuzzy Clustering

Fuzzy clustering or soft clustering methods are characterized in that each

observation can potentially belong to several clusters, specifically, each observation
is assigned a degree of membership to each of the clusters.

Fuzzy c-means (FCM) is one of the most widely used algorithms to generate fuzzy
clustering. It closely resembles the k-means algorithm but with two differences:

T he calculation of the centroids of the clusters. T he def inition of centroid used by c-

means is: the mean of all the observations in the data set weighted by the probability of
belonging to the cluster.

Returns f or each observation the probability of belonging to each cluster.

You may also be interested in exploring:

Popular Data Science Basics Online Popular Machine Learning Online Courses &
Courses & Certif ications Certif ications

Popular Deep Learning Online Courses & Popular Python f or data science Online
Certif ications Courses & Certif ications

DBSCAN

Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) is the

methodology to identify clusters following the intuitive way in which the human brain
does. It identifies regions with a high density of observations separated by regions

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
of low density.

See the following two-dimensional representation of a matrix, where the second

image represents how a human eye can see the difference between monochrome
and color-based clusters.

The DBSCAN algorithm needs two parameters:

Epsilon ( ) – It is the radius that defines the neighboring region to an observation,

also called - neighborhood.

Minimum points (minPts) – Minimum number of observations within the epsilon

region.

The DBSCAN algorithm is the fastest clustering method, but it is only appropriate if
a very clear Search Distance can be used, and it works well with all potential clusters.
This requires that all significant clusters have similar densities. DBSCAN method also
allows you to use the Time Field and Search Time Range parameters to find point
clusters in space and time.

Try this – Steps to Create Your Own Machine Learning Models

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
Distribution Model-Based Clustering

The distribution model-based clustering method involves dividing data on the

probability of how a dataset belongs to a probability distribution, where each group
represents different clusters. The clustering is done basis Gaussian distribution.

Each cluster k is modeled by the normal or Gaussian distribution, defined by the

below parameters –
Μk – Mean vector

∑k – Covariance matrix

An associated probability in the distribution. T here is a probability of every point belonging

to each cluster.

Steps involved in Clustering

Below steps are involved in data clustering –

STEP 1

Standardization – To calculate good clusters it is necessary to standardize the

data. This means that you need to make your quantitative variables have a mean of
0 and a standard deviation of 1.

STEP2

Draw the matrix plot and the correlation between features – It is important to get an
idea of the variables that are most related to each other to know which variables
can dominate the clusters. In the end, you would need to describe your quantitative
variables.

STEP 3

Calculate the optimal number of clusters – We can calculate the optimal number of
clusters using k-means and Gaussian mixture models for good clustering.

STEP 4

Calculate the clusters with different techniques – Different techniques like k-means,

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.
GMM or hierarchical methods can be used to interpret the clusters. You can draw
conclusions basis the performance of each clustering technique.

STEP 5

Compare the clusters you have calculated – The last step is to compare the
characteristics of the groups that you have created with the preferred technique
selected in step 4. See if you find significant differences between groups according
to the characteristics and in which variables those differences are seen. This will help
you interpret the clusters that you have calculated.

Conclusion

Clustering is an easy-to-implement methodology and is a crucial component of data

mining and machine learning techniques. However, you need to take care of aspects
like removing outliers in your data, cleaning the data, and ensuring that your data
sets are sufficient and accurate. The applications of clustering are immense. We will
discuss the application of the clustering algorithm in our next article.

Keep learning!

If you have recently completed a professional course/certification, click here to

submit a review.

Disclaim e r: This PDF is auto -generated based o n the info rmatio n available o n Shiksha as
o n 0 1-No v-20 23.