Electronic Nose Based on an Optimized Competition Neural Network.docVIP

Sensors 2011, 11, 5005-5019; doi:10.3390/s110505005 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Electronic Nose Based on an Optimized Competition Neural Network Hong Men *, Haiyan Liu, Yunpeng Pan, Lei Wang and Haiping Zhang School of Automation Engineering, Northeast Dianli University, Jilin City 132012, China; E-Mails: lhyck01@126.com (H.L.); 187157331@ (Y.P.); wanglei0510410@126.com (L.W.); zhplxzlq@ (H.Z.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: menhong_china@; Tel.: +86-432-6480-7283; Fax: +86-432-6480-6201. Received: 21 February 2011; in revised form: 30 March 2011 / Accepted: 29 April 2011 / Published: 4 May 2011 Abstract: 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: electronic nose; competitive neural networks; optimize 1. Introduction The volatile odor of substances such as alcohol, tobacco, tea, food, etc. is closely linked to their quality. The electronic nose (EN) imitates an animal’s olfactory mechanism, which tests the volatile smell of food to detect the quality of certain foods. After their