QGB-W$k$NN: Quantum Granular-Ball Learning for Robust Classification

Abstract

Nearest-neighbor classification is widely used in machine learning, yet existing methods often suffer from low computational efficiency and limited robustness in noisy environments. To jointly address these challenges, this paper proposes an efficient and reliable weighted $K$-nearest neighbor classification framework based on quantum granular balls, termed QGB-W$k$NN. The proposed framework improves computational efficiency by integrating quantum-enhanced granular-ball representation with hierarchical nearest-neighbor search, while enhancing classification reliability through a purity-aware weighted decision mechanism. Specifically, quantum-kernel granular balls are constructed to reduce retrieval redundancy and strengthen nonlinear feature representation under limited quantum resources. A granular-ball purity-guided HNSW optimization strategy is developed to exploit structural reliability for hierarchical graph construction during neighbor retrieval, alleviating the local optimality issue caused by conventional random layering. Finally, a weighted voting mechanism jointly incorporating granular-ball similarity and purity is introduced to produce more reliable classification decisions in noisy environments. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that QGB-W$k$NN achieves competitive classification accuracy while exhibiting favorable Pareto trade-offs between classification performance and computational cost. Moreover, the proposed framework consistently improves robustness under various noisy conditions, suggesting that reliability-aware quantum granular-ball learning provides a promising paradigm for efficient and robust nearest-neighbor classification.