Variational Bayesian extreme learning machine

Extreme learning machine (ELM) randomly generates parameters of hidden nodes and then analytically determines the output weights with fast learning speed. The ill-posed problem of parameter matrix of hidden nodes directly causes unstable performance, and the automatical selection problem of the hidden nodes is critical to holding the high efficiency of ELM. Focusing on the ill-posed problem and the automatical selection problem of the hidden nodes, this paper proposes the variational Bayesian extreme learning machine (VBELM). First, the Bayesian probabilistic model is involved into ELM, where the Bayesian prior distribution can avoid the ill-posed problem of hidden node matrix. Then, the variational approximation inference is employed in the Bayesian model to compute the posterior distribution and the independent variational hyperparameters approximately, which can be used to select the hidden nodes automatically. Theoretical analysis and experimental results elucidate that VBELM has stabler performance with more compact architectures, which presents probabilistic predictions comparison with traditional point predictions, and it also provides the hyperparameter criterion for hidden node selection.