In view of the fact that there are disadvantages in that the class number must be determined in advance, the value of learning rates are hard to fix, etc., when using traditional competitive neural networks (CNNs) in electronic noses (E-noses), an optimized CNN method was presented. The optimized CNN was established on the basis of the optimum class number of samples according to the changes of the Davies and Bouldin (DB) value and it could increase, divide, or delete neurons in order to adjust the number of neurons automatically. Moreover, the learning rate changes according to the variety of training times of each sample. The traditional CNN and the optimized CNN were applied to five kinds of sorted vinegars with an E-nose. The results showed that optimized network structures could adjust the number of clusters dynamically and resulted in good classifications.
Keywords: competitive neural networks; electronic nose; optimize.