Remote Sensing Image Classification using Ant Colony Optimization

FIZAZI Hadria, HANNANE Amir Mokhtar

Laboratory Signal Image Parole (SIMPA), Department of Computer Science, University of Science and
Technology of Oran USTO Algeria, Bp. 1505, Oran Elmnaouer, 31036, Algeria
hadriafizazi@yahoo.fr
hannane_amir@yahoo.fr

Abstract

In order to improve the performance of the remote sensing images classification, we use a new objective function
for a swarm intelligence technique. The traditional objective functions were showed limitations for solving
complex classification problems because they take into account a small amount of information. For example, the
Euclidean distance(ED) function seeks only to minimize the distance between the point representing the class
and the training samples. To avoid this drawbacks we use a new objective function called Davies-Bouldin (DB)
index, which takes into account several informations at once (mean, standard deviation,..). An ant colony
optimization (ACO) algorithm called API is implemented in this work as an optimization technique using the DB
index and ED as functions to be minimized. The implementation of the API algorithm in remote sensing image
classification has yielded good results. The new function shows the benefits because we have an increase in the
overall accuracy of 4.312% and an improvement in Kappa coefficient of 0.0496.

Key words: Remote Sensing, Image Classification, Ant Colony Optimization, Davies-Bouldin Index.

1. Introduction

Extracting information from a satellite image remains a major problem for the community of the researchers
because this type of image is characterized by large size (multispectral/hyperspectral image) and a wide variety
of topics that it contains [1]. Several processing can be applied on such an image to get the desired information,
such segmentation can cut image in these components (region extraction or edge detection) or classification to
determine its various classes. A method for classifying a remotely sensed image is called supervised if it requires
a priori information on the study area. This processing is unsupervised in case the method requires no
information on the image to classify. Several methods based on mathematics were used for classification:
Support Vector Machine [2], Maximum Likelihood [3], K-means clustering [4], Bayesian Classifier [5] and
Principal Components Analysis [6]. The bio-inspired approaches have been also widely used for example:
different types of Neural Networks as Multilayer Perceptron [7], the Radial Basic Function Network [8] and the
Kohonen Network [9], another example of algorithms inspired from biology: Genetic Algorithms [10] and
Artificial Immune Systems [11].
The ACO have been proposed by Dorigo et al in 1991 but the first work was published in 1996 [12]. These
algorithms use the mechanism of ant colony foraging. The colony of ants communicates via pheromones to find
the optimal path between food and nest of the colony. The travelling salesman problem is similar to the
mechanism of food collection by ants. The ACO were then applied to this type of problem, and experiments
showed good solutions.
In recent years there was an interest on the use of ACO for the remote sensing image classification. This type of
algorithms has been applied for the construction of rules for obtaining a better classification [13], [14]. Hegarat-
Mascle et al [15] present a method to estimate non-stationary neighbourhood shape in the framework of Markov
random field Bayesian classification based on the heuristic ACO.
To apply an optimization technique on the remote sensing data classification, a function to be minimized would
be necessary. Most methods use the distance between training samples and class centers as objective function
[16], [17]. This function seeks to minimize only one criterion is distance. At our level to avoid the limitations of
the previous function, we use a new objective function that represents the Davies-Bouldin index. This index has
been applied as an objective function in genetic algorithms for the unsupervised remote sensing image
classification [18], [19], [20]. To evaluate the quality of this new function, we compare it with the Euclidean
distance.
This article is organized in the following ways: in the second section we give an illustration on the API
algorithm. In the third section we discuss on the modelling of the problem and the objective functions used. The
fourth section is devoted to the presentation of experimental results and the comparison made between the
objective functions. A conclusion and perspectives are presented in section five.


2. Ant Colony Optimization

The ACO represent some of the biological inspiration that have been used to solve engineering problems
(optimization, classification ...) [21]. Our interest in these algorithms is on the proposed algorithms for
optimization problems. In this family we chose the API algorithm. This algorithm is inspired by a colony of ants
called Pachycondyla apicalis characterized by the lack of communication between these individuals. The API
algorithm proposed by N.Monmarch [22] can be applied to various problems such as neural networks learning
[7], search of information on web [23], Hidden Markov Model training [24] and also to the travelling salesman
problem.


2.1 The ant Pachycondyla apicalis

The behavior of Pachycondyla apicalis has been studied by D. Fresneau in 1985 and 1994 [25], [26]. We
illustrate the behavior the more interesting i.e. the behavior used in modeling:
- Leaving the nest, ants create hunting sites around the nest to catch the prey;
- Each ant explores hunting sites alone one by one for the capture prey;
- If an ant finds a prey, then it returns to the nest and begins the next harvest from the location of the final
capture;
- If an ant dont find a prey in a site of hunting after several browsing then it leaves the site and unaware it;
- If the outdatedness of the nest becomes important then, the nest must be moved towards a new refuge.


2.2 Behavior Modeling

The modeling behavior of the ant Pachycondyla apicalis is proposed by N. Monmarch [22]. This
corresponds to an algorithm called API designed to solve optimization problems. The space explored by the ants
is transformed into a search space denoted S (Figure 1, 2). The nest, ants and hunting sites are represented by
points (location) in S.
Initially the nest (N) is placed in a uniformly random manner (Figure 1) in the search space using the equation
(1). Thereafter every ant of the population (n ant) creates p hunting sites with a uniformly random manner
around the nest (Figure 1) using the equation (2) respecting an A
site
amplitude. An ant explores a hunting site
using the equation (2), respecting an A
locale
amplitude (figure 2) for a time P
locale
, corresponding to the patience
of the ant that is the number of successive failures in a hunting site. A failure means that the ant has changed its
location, without improving the objective function.


Figure 1: Creation of the hunting sites (s
1,
s
2,
s
3
) around the nest N respecting an A
site
amplitude.


The overall goal of the population of ants is to minimize a function f defined from R to S in a number of
iterations noted T. The procedure for an ant is to find a s site in the neighborhood of s such that f(s') is better
than f(s). This is the modeling of the capture of prey.

The two most elements in API algorithm are the operators of exploration. The first operator (equation (1))
generates a point s in the search space S in a random way:
S=[b
1
, B
1
][b
2
, B
2
][b
l
, B
l
] where l is the dimension of the objective function. s=(s
i
)

S ; i=1,2,,l.
) ]( 1 , 0 [
i i i i
b B U b s + =

(1)
U [0,1]: a random number drawn uniformly in the interval [0,1].

The second operator (equation (2)) generates a point s' in the neighborhood of s taking into account an A
amplitude. The amplitude A equal to A
site
in case of creation of hunting site and A
locale
in case of exploration of a
hunting site.
s
'
=(s
i
'
)

S ; i=1,2,,l.
) ]( 5 . 0 , 5 . 0 [
'
i i i
i b B AU b s + =

(2)
U [0.5,0.5]: random number drawn uniformly in the interval [0.5,0.5].
It should be made sure that s
i
'

[B
i
-b
i
]. The second operator also has a uniform behavior in the interval
[s
i
-0.5A(B
i
-b
i
), s
i
+0.5A(B
i
-b
i
)].



Figure 2: Exploring the hunting site s
1
respecting an A
locale
amplitude.


2.2 API Algorithm

Nest posed in search space
T0 ;
While (stop condition is not checked)
Do
For ( any ant of the population) do
While (Patience< P
locale
)
create sites of hunting
explore the hunting sites
end while
end for
if (nest must be moved) then
move the nest
end if
T T +1
End while
Return the position of the nest



3. Coding and objective function

Several steps are necessary to use the API method for satellite image classification: coding of ants, definition
of the objective function and the application of exploration operators.

3.1 Objective function

An ant population is encoded as strings of representatives of classes (C
1
, C
2
, ..., C
n
) representing a problem
solution (Figure 3). The coding can be done by real or integer numbers. The number of classes is fixed a priori,
therefore the size of ant is known. In this research, an ant is encoded by positive real numbers. Consider the
following case as an example: Suppose a satellite image of three bands, the configuration of the ant i is as
follows:



Figure 3: Configuration of the ant i.


Ants of the population moving in the search space using an objective function measuring the fitness of each
ant. The aim of this population is to find the best representatives of classes for a better classification.
The Euclidean distance (see equation (3)) between learning samples and representatives of classes has been
used as objective function in various researches:
( ) ( )

=
=
n
i
i i
y x y x D
1
2
,

(3)

Several other classification validity indices have been developed to determine an optimal classification, for
example the Separation Index, "SI", the Davies-Bouldin "DB" index and the Xie-Beni Index, "XBI" [27]. The
DB index is widely used in remote sensing image classification [28], [29]. The DB index can be calculated as
follows:
( ) ( )

=
=
<
non si
k C x D
j i
n j
ki
; 0
, min arg ; 1
1
(4)
Where
x
i
: The gray level of pixel i.
M
k
: Number of elements in class k.

ki
: Membership function of pixel i to class k.
X
k
: All elements of class k.

Then the average (v) and standard deviation (S) of each class are calculated as follows:
( )
( )
k
X x
i
M
i
ki
M
i
i ki
k
M
x
x
v
k i
k
k

=
=
= =
1
1

(5)

2 / 1
2 1
|
|

\
|
=

k
X x
k
k
k
v x
M
S

(6)

Now calculate the distance between the averages classes with equation (7):
t
j k kj
v v d =

(7)
d
kj
is the Minkowski distance of order t between the k
th
center and the i
th
center. We set t=2.

Then the R
k
value of k
th
center is calculated by equation (8).

+
=

kj
j k
k j j
k
d
S S
R
,
max

(8)

The DB value is defined as the average R of all classes (equation (9)).

=
=
n
k
k
R
n
DB
1
1

(9)

To arrive at a good classification of an image, it is necessary to minimize the DB value. A minimum value of
DB corresponds to classification with the smallest inner-class scatter and the largest class separation. In our
work the equation (4) is not used, because the classes of the training samples are known.
In the following example we explain how we used the DB index and the Euclidean distance as an objective
function for the supervised satellite images classification. Let A
1,
A
2,
A
3
a partition of A as:
A
1
= (1, 2, 3, 4), A
2
= (5, 6, 7, 8), A
3
= (9, 10, 11, 12).
We add an element to each class and subsequently calculate the DB value. This manipulation is summarized
in Table 1.

Test Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 DB value
1 A1 {3.5} A2 {8} A3 {12.5} 0.5802
2 A1 {3} A2 {7.5} A3 {12} 0.5352
3 A1 {2.5} A2 {7} A3 {11.5} 0.5051
4 A1 {2} A2 {6.5} A3 {11} 0.4926
5 A1 {1.5} A2 {6} A3 {10.5} 0.5051

Table 1: search of representatives of classes using DB value.


In Table 1 we see that the minimum value of DB is obtained when the elements 2.5, 4.5 and 6.5 are added to
classes A
1,
A
2
and A
3
respectively. It is also noted that the DB value decreases as the added elements are close to
the additions of test 4.
The minimal value of DB is acquired when not only the elements added represents well the classes but also
when they are far between them.
We propose to consider the added elements in Table 1 as representatives (C
1
, C
2
, C
3
) of the classes A
1
, A
2
, A
3

then we calculate the Euclidean distance (ED) between the representatives of the classes and the elements of
each class. That is summarized in Table 2.

Test C
1
C
2
C
3
ED value
1 4 6 8 6
2 3.5 5.5 7.5 5
3 3 5 7 4
4 2.5 4.5 6.5 4
5 2 4 6 4

Table 2: search of representatives classes using ED value.


The minimum value of ED in Table 2 is repeated in several tests. Tests 3 and 5 dont represent the true
representatives of the classes but have the same value as the test 4. We can say that the results are not
guaranteed when ED is use as objective function.


3.2 Classification

The classification of objects using the Euclidean distance still has limitations because a given object is not
necessarily assigned to the appropriate class. Figure 4 show a real example of our problem, where the element to
be classified will be assigned to the small class because it is closer to the point representing of this class. But it is
more appropriate to be assigned to the large class.


Figure 4: problem of classification


In this work we apply both ED and DB index for the classification stage. For the ED function the principle is
simple it is enough to affect the pixel want to be classified to the class where the representative is closest. For the
DB function, we add the pixel wants to classify on the training samples of first class and, we add in the other
class samples training the optimal centers found during the training and calculate thereafter the DB value. We
repeat this procedure for each class. The pixel will be assigned to the class where the DB value is minimal. Our
principle of classification is summarized in Table 3.
Suppose that we have three training samples (E
1,
E
2,
E
3
) of three classes. E
1
= (1, 2, 3, 4), E
2
= (5.5, 6, 6,
6.5), E
3
= (9, 10, 11, 12)
The representatives of classes found during the training stage using the DB value are: 2, 6, 11, for three
classes respectively. Our problem is: classification of the element 8.

DB value
E
1

{8} E
2

{6} E
3

{11} 0.9227
E
1

{2} E
2

{8} E
3

{11} 0.4625
E
1

{2} E
2

{6} E
3

{8} 0.4121

Table 3: classification using DB value


In the Table 3 the minimum DB value is obtained when we added the element 8 in sample 3, so this element
will be assigned to class 3. If we use in the ED function, the element 8 will be assigned to Class 2 because it is
closer to the point representing this class.



4. Experimental results

This work has been implemented using the C++ Builder 6 programming language. To test our approach, we
used an image of the Oran region (West Algeria) of 10241024, acquired by the LANDSAT satellite in 1993.
This image has been chosen for the diversity of themes within it. The bands used are: red, infrared and blue.
In our application we used a portion of the study area of size 12088 (area shown in Figure 5). This latter is
made up of 4 topics: sea, undertow, forest and sand.
In the goal to make a comparison between the Euclidean distance and Davies-Bouldin index, we use them as
objective functions in algorithm API. We note API-ED when we use the first function and API-DBI when we use
the function proposed.




Figure 5: Study Area.


The algorithm API has several parameters must be determined a priori. After several tests, the parameters are
fixed as follows: n=18, p=60, A
site
=100, A
locale
=20, P
locale
=10, T=5 ;



Figure 6: Classification of the study area by: (a) API-ED. (b) API-DBI.

From Figure 6 we see that both approaches have different classification results. The API-ED method could
distinguish the 4 classes of the study area, but there are pixels in the forest class (Figure 6 (a)) misclassified.


Mthode Mer Ressac Sable Foret
Mer 100 17.5 0 0
Ressac 0 82.5 0 0
Sable 0 0 95 2.5


API-ED
Foret 0 0 5 97.5
Mer 100 7.5 0 0
Ressac 0 92.5 0 0
Sable 0 0 100 2.752


API-DBI
Foret 0 0 0 97.248

Table 4: Confusion matrix of the classification
The API-ED approach has produced confusion because pixels in the forest class were classified as pixel of sea
class (circle in Figure 6 (a)). Visually API-DBI method has a better classification. In Figure 6 (b) all classes are
not confused.
To compare quantitatively the results of the two methods, we examine the Overall Accuracy (OA) and the
Kappa coefficient.

Table 4 shows the confusion matrix of API-DBI and API-ED approaches. The API-ED method produced
confusion between the sea class and the undertow class, because the pixels belonging to the sea class have been
classified as pixels of the undertow class. This approach has affected also pixels of the sand class to the forest
class.

API-ED API-DBI
OA 93.125% 97.437%
Kappa Coefficient 0.9159 0.9655

Table 5: Performance of the classification.


The API-DBI approach could make a good classification except a little confusion between the sea and the
undertow classes and the forest class with sand class.
Table 5 shows that API-DBI method produces the best OA, that is to say, the best percentage of pixels well
classified. We note an increase in OA from 93,125% for API-ED to 97,437% for API-DBI so an improvement
of 4.312%.
It is recognized that the OA is not sufficient to measure the performance of a classification technique [30]. To
measure this performance, we also used the Kappa coefficient. In Table 5, we note that the Kappa coefficient
increased from 0.9159 for API-ED method to 0.9655 for API-DBI method thus an improvement of 0.0496.



4. Conclusion
Thus, we used the behavior modeling of the ant Pachycondela apicalys for satellite images classification using
an objective function called Davies-Bouldin index.
To evaluate the performance of this function we have compared it with the Euclidean distance function. By
examining either the OA or the Kappa coefficient the experimental results show that the DB index function
could give good performances. We noted a large increase in the OA and also an improvement on Kappa
coefficient.
The large number of parameters and the difficulty of their choices stand as major obstacles for the use of the
API algorithm. As perspective, would not set the parameters of the ant in time but to make dynamic.


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