Multi-Attribute Utility Theory Based K-Means Clustering Applications

One of major obstacles in the application of the k-means clustering algorithm is the selection of the number of clusters k. The multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT)-based k-means clustering algorithm is proposed to tackle the problem by incorporating user preferences. Using MAUT, the decision maker's value structure for the number of clusters and other attributes can be quantitatively modeled, and it can be used as an objective function of the k-means. A target clustering problem for military targeting process is used to demonstrate the MAUT-based k-means and provide a comparative study. The result shows that the existing clustering algorithms do not necessarily reflect user preferences while the MAUT-based k-means provides a systematic framework of preferences modeling in cluster analysis.