Neural-symbolic temporal decision trees for multivariate time series classification

Abstract

Multivariate time series classification is an ubiquitous and widely studied problem. Due to their strong generalization capability, neural networks are suitable for this problem, but their intrinsic black-box nature often limits their applicability. Temporal decision trees are a relevant alternative to neural networks for the same task regarding classification performances while attaining higher levels of transparency and interpretability. In this work, we approach the problem of hybridizing these two techniques, and present three independent, natural hybridization solutions to study if, and in what measure, both the ability of neural networks to capture complex temporal patterns and the transparency and flexibility of temporal decision trees can be leveraged. To this end, we provide initial experimental results for several tasks in a binary classification setting, showing that our proposed neural-symbolic hybridization schemata may be a step towards accurate and interpretable models.