Heuristic Approach Performances for Artificial Neural Networks Training

Abstract

This chapter aimed to evaluate heuristic approach performances for artificial neural networks (ANN) training. For this purpose, software that can perform ANN training application was developed using four different algorithms. First of all, training system was developed via back propagation (BP) algorithm, which is the most commonly used method for ANN training in the literature. Then, in order to compare the performance of this method with the heuristic methods, software that performs ANN training with genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and artificial immunity (AI) methods were designed. These designed software programs were tested on the breast cancer dataset taken from UCI (University of California, Irvine) database. When the test results were evaluated, it was seen that the most important difference between heuristic algorithms and BP algorithm occurred during the training period. When the training-test durations and performance rates were examined, the optimal algorithm for ANN training was determined as GA.