Novel trajectory clustering method based on distance dependent Chinese restaurant process

PeerJ Comput Sci. 2019 Aug 12:5:e206. doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.206. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Trajectory clustering and path modelling are two core tasks in intelligent transport systems with a wide range of applications, from modeling drivers' behavior to traffic monitoring of road intersections. Traditional trajectory analysis considers them as separate tasks, where the system first clusters the trajectories into a known number of clusters and then the path taken in each cluster is modelled. However, such a hierarchy does not allow the knowledge of the path model to be used to improve the performance of trajectory clustering. Based on the distance dependent Chinese restaurant process (DDCRP), a trajectory analysis system that simultaneously performs trajectory clustering and path modelling was proposed. Unlike most traditional approaches where the number of clusters should be known, the proposed method decides the number of clusters automatically. The proposed algorithm was tested on two publicly available trajectory datasets, and the experimental results recorded better performance and considerable improvement in both datasets for the task of trajectory clustering compared to traditional approaches. The study proved that the proposed method is an appropriate candidate to be used for trajectory clustering and path modelling.

Keywords: Anomaly detection; Chinese restaurant process; Distance dependent CRP; Path modelling; Trajectory clustering.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education Malaysia by through a Research University Grant of University Technology Malaysia (UTM), project titled “Intelligent fault detection and diagnosing for process plant R.k430000.77434.4J010.” The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.