To address the challenges posed by aviation operational data in the context of the low-altitude economy—characterized by numerous discrete attributes and high heterogeneity—as well as the inherent limitations of the
K
-modes clustering algorithm
including sensitivity to initial cluster centers
susceptibility to local optima
and insufficient adaptability to complex data
this paper proposes a
K
-modes clustering algorithm optimized by the quantum collaborative artificial lemming algorithm (QCALA). The QCALA-
K
-modes algorithm is constructed by introducing quantum tunneling initialization into the cluster center generation process and designing four strategies: adaptive step-size perturbation
multi-burrow collaborative excavation
quantum chaotic spiral foraging
and tri-mode switching escape. These strategies achieve synergistic optimization of global exploration and local exploitation un
der the regulation of an energy factor. The proposed method is validated using 8standard benchmark functions
6public datasets
and 539383flight records from the Heywhale community. On the public datasets
QCALA-
K
-modes achieves a normalized mutual information (NMI) of 0.9062on the Aggregation dataset
outperforming
K
-means (0.8395) and hierarchical clustering (0.9010); on the Bupa dataset
its NMI reaches 0.1384
surpassing
K
-means (0.0009) and hierarchical clustering (0.0001); and on the Records dataset
the NMI is 0.5319. For the flight data
the inter-cluster range of delay rates among the four flight patterns reaches 35.44%
effectively distinguishing between high-and low-risk operational modes and validating the clustering discriminability and business interpretability of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm provides methodological support for the refined identification of aviation operational statuses and the tiered management of delay risks in low-altitude economy scenarios.
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