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The Dunn index is the ratio of the smallest inter-cluster distance to the largest intra-cluster diameter, defined as \(D = \min_{i \neq j} \delta(C_i, C_j) / \max_k \Delta(C_k)\) where \(\delta(C_i, C_j)\) is the minimum distance between clusters \(i\) and \(j\), and \(\Delta(C_k)\) is the maximum distance between any two observations in cluster \(k\). Higher values indicate compact, well-separated clusters.

Details

If the task contains factor or ordered features, Gower distances (cluster::daisy()) are used instead of Euclidean distances.

Dictionary

This mlr3::Measure can be instantiated via the dictionary mlr3::mlr_measures or with the associated sugar function mlr3::msr():

mlr_measures$get("clust.dunn")
msr("clust.dunn")

Meta Information

  • Task type: “clust”

  • Range: \([0, \infty)\)

  • Minimize: FALSE

  • Average: macro

  • Required Prediction: “partition”

  • Required Packages: mlr3, mlr3cluster, cluster

References

Dunn, C J (1974). “Well-separated clusters and optimal fuzzy partitions.” Journal of Cybernetics, 4(1), 95–104. doi:10.1080/01969727408546059 .