Parallel, self-organizing, hierarchical neural networks.

A new neural-network architecture called the parallel, self-organizing, hierarchical neural network (PSHNN) is presented. The new architecture involves a number of stages in which each stage can be a particular neural network (SNN). At the end of each stage, error detection is carried out, and a number of input vectors are rejected. Between two stages there is a nonlinear transformation of input vectors rejected by the previous stage. The new architecture has many desirable properties, such as optimized system complexity (in the sense of minimized self-organizing number of stages), high classification accuracy, minimized learning and recall times, and truly parallel architectures in which all stages operate simultaneously without waiting for data from other stages during testing. The experiments performed indicated the superiority of the new architecture over multilayered networks with back-propagation training.