Bayesian Classifier Based on Robust Kernel Density Estimation and Harris Hawks Optimisation

In real-world applications, datasets frequently contain outliers, which can hinder the generalization ability of machine learning models. Bayesian classifiers, a popular supervised learning method, rely on accurate probability density estimation for classifying continuous datasets. However, achieving precise density estimation with datasets containing outliers poses a significant challenge. This paper introduces a Bayesian classifier that utilizes optimized robust kernel density estimation to address this issue. Our proposed method enhances the accuracy of probability density distribution estimation by mitigating the impact of outliers on the training sample’s estimated distribution. Unlike the conventional kernel density estimator, our robust estimator can be seen as a weighted kernel mapping summary for each sample. This kernel mapping performs the inner product in the Hilbert space, allowing the kernel density estimation to be considered the average of the samples’ mapping in the Hilbert space using a reproducing kernel. M-estimation techniques are used to obtain accurate mean values and solve the weights. Meanwhile, complete cross-validation is used as the objective function to search for the optimal bandwidth, which impacts the estimator. The Harris Hawks Optimisation optimizes the objective function to improve the estimation accuracy. The experimental results show that it outperforms other optimization algorithms regarding convergence speed and objective function value during the bandwidth search. The optimal robust kernel density estimator achieves better fitness performance than the traditional kernel density estimator when the training data contains outliers. The Na？ve Bayesian with optimal robust kernel density estimation improves the generalization in the classification with outliers.