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Scalable learning of time series classifiers

Time series describe dynamic processes. Driven by big data applications including mapping of land use from satellite observations over time, our award winning research is revolutionising time series classification by developing technologies that can learn from and accurately classify orders of magnitude larger time series collections than the previous state of the art.

ROCKET and its successors MiniROCKET, MultiROCKET and HYDRA use convolutional filters from deep learning to extract diverse time series features of types that have previously each been addressed by specialised techniques. ROCKET generates a many of these filters and uses them to extract features from each series. From these features a simple linear classifier can learn models that are as accurate as the prior state-of-the-art, but do so in a fraction of the time and create models that classify with blistering speed. Angus Dempster received The Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia Distinguished Dissertation Award for this research. An implementation can be downloaded here. The most recent paper can be found here. Angus' video explaining ROCKET and its successors can be found here.

QUANT is a highly efficient interval method time series classifier, assessed by a recent benchmarking paper as best interval classifier and as "achieving high accuracy remarkably fast." An implementation can be downloaded here. The paper can be found here.

Proximity Forest provides a significant advance on the state of the art in time series classification. By coupling the efficiency of divide and conquer tree classifiers with the effectiveness of specialised similarity measures specifically designed for time series, Proximity Forest achieves very high accuracy for modest computation. An implementation can be downloaded here. The most recent paper can be found here.

TS-Chief builds upon Proximity Forest, enhancing its proximity-based methods by integrating interval statistics and dictionary techniques.  An implementation can be found here and the paper found here.

InceptionTime brings the power of deep learning to time series classification. An implementation can be downloaded here. The paper can be downloaded here.

LB Webb and LB Enhanced are our novel lower bounds for Dynamic Time Warping that are both faster and tighter than the popular LB_Keogh. Implementations can be downloaded here and here. The papers can be found here and here.

The following is a blog post on the use of Barycentric averaging in time series classification: http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/12/averaging-improves-accuracy-speed-time-series-classification.html. The code can be downloaded here: http://francois-petitjean.com/Research/ICDM2014-DTW/index.php. The slides for the 10-year Highest Impact Paper Award winning ICDM 2014 paper can be downloaded here: http://francois-petitjean.com/Research/ICDM2014-DTW/Slides.pdf.

The TSI software for the SDM 2017 paper on time series indexing can be downloaded here: https://github.com/ChangWeiTan/TSI. Slides for the SDM 2017 paper can be found here: http://francois-petitjean.com/Research/SDM17-slides.pdf.

The software for the Best Paper Award winning SDM 2018 paper on finding the best warping window can be downloaded here: https://github.com/ChangWeiTan/FastWWSearch (Matlab version).

Resources referred to in Deep Learning for Time Series Classification and Extrinsic Regression: A Current Survey can be found here: https://github.com/Navidfoumani/TSC_Survey.

We work within the Monash Temporal Analytics Lab.

Publications

Darban, Zahra Zamanzadeh; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Pan, Shirui; Aggarwal, Charu C.; Salehi, Mahsa

CARLA: Self-supervised contrastive representation learning for time series anomaly detection

Pattern Recognition, vol. 157, 2025, ISSN: 0031-3203.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Herrmann, Matthieu; Salehi, Mahsa; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Proximity forest 2.0: a new effective and scalable similarity-based classifier for time series

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 39, no. 2, 2025, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Links | BibTeX

Darban, Zahra Zamanzadeh; Yang, Yiyuan; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Aggarwal, Charu C.; Wen, Qingsong; Pan, Shirui; Salehi, Mahsa

DACAD: Domain Adaptation Contrastive Learning for Anomaly Detection in Multivariate Time Series

IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, pp. 1-12, 2025, ISSN: 2326-3865.

Links | BibTeX

Darban, Zahra Zamanzadeh; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Pan, Shirui; Aggarwal, Charu; Salehi, Mahsa

Deep Learning for Time Series Anomaly Detection: A Survey

ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 1–42, 2024, ISSN: 1557-7341.

Links | BibTeX

Bagnall, Anthony; Middlehurst, Matthew; Forestier, Germain; Ismail-Fawaz, Ali; Guillaume, Antoine; Guijo-Rubio, David; Tan, Chang Wei; Dempster, Angus; Webb, Geoffrey I.

A Hands-on Introduction to Time Series Classification and Regression

Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pp. 6410-6411, ACM, 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Foumani, Navid Mohammadi; Tan, Chang Wei; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Salehi, Mahsa

Improving position encoding of transformers for multivariate time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 38, pp. 22-48, 2024.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Foumani, Navid Mohammadi; Miller, Lynn; Tan, Chang Wei; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Forestier, Germain; Salehi, Mahsa

Deep Learning for Time Series Classification and Extrinsic Regression: A Current Survey

ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 56, no. 9, 2024, ISSN: 0360-0300.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Miller, Lynn; Pelletier, Charlotte; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Deep Learning for Satellite Image Time-Series Analysis: A review

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 81-124, 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Dempster, Angus; Schmidt, Daniel F.; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Quant: a minimalist interval method for time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 38, pp. 2377-2402, 2024, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Foumani, Navid Mohammadi; Tan, Chang Wei; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Rezatofighi, Hamid; Salehi, Mahsa

Series2vec: similarity-based self-supervised representation learning for time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 2024, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Jin, Ming; Koh, Huan Yee; Wen, Qingsong; Zambon, Daniele; Alippi, Cesare; Webb, Geoffrey I.; King, Irwin; Pan, Shirui

A Survey on Graph Neural Networks for Time Series: Forecasting, Classification, Imputation, and Anomaly Detection

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, pp. 1-20, 2024, ISSN: 1939-3539.

Links | BibTeX

Lucas, Benjamin; Pelletier, Charlotte; Schmidt, Daniel; Webb, Geoffrey I; Petitjean, François

A Bayesian-inspired, deep learning-based, semi-supervised domain adaptation technique for land cover mapping

Machine Learning, vol. 112, pp. 1941-1973, 2023.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Herrmann, Matthieu; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Ultra-fast meta-parameter optimization for time series similarity measures with application to nearest neighbour classification

Knowledge and Information Systems, vol. 65, pp. 2123-2157, 2023.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Shifaz, Ahmed; Pelletier, Charlotte; Petitjean, François; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Elastic similarity and distance measures for multivariate time series

Knowledge and Information Systems, vol. 65, pp. 2665-2698, 2023.

Links | BibTeX

Miller, Lynn; Zhu, Liujun; Yebra, Marta; Rudiger, Christoph; Webb, Geoffrey I

Projecting live fuel moisture content via deep learning

International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2023.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Herrmann, Matthieu; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Amercing: An Intuitive and Effective Constraint for Dynamic Time Warping

Pattern Recognition, vol. 137, 2023, ISSN: 0031-3203.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Herrmann, Matthieu; Tan, Chang Wei; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Parameterizing the cost function of dynamic time warping with application to time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 37, pp. 2024-2045, 2023.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dempster, Angus; Schmidt, Daniel F.; Webb, Geoffrey I.

HYDRA: competing convolutional kernels for fast and accurate time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1779-1805, 2023.

Links | BibTeX

Pialla, Gautier; Fawaz, Hassan Ismail; Devanne, Maxime; Weber, Jonathan; Idoumghar, Lhassane; Muller, Pierre-Alain; Bergmeir, Christoph; Schmidt, Daniel F.; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Forestier, Germain

Time series adversarial attacks: an investigation of smooth perturbations and defense approaches

International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 2023.

Links | BibTeX

Ismail-Fawaz, Ali; Fawaz, Hassan Ismail; Petitjean, François; Devanne, Maxime; Weber, Jonathan; Berretti, Stefano; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Forestier, Germain

ShapeDBA: Generating Effective Time Series Prototypes Using ShapeDTW Barycenter Averaging

Ifrim, Georgiana; Tavenard, Romain; Bagnall, Anthony; Schaefer, Patrick; Malinowski, Simon; Guyet, Thomas; Lemaire, Vincent (Ed.): Advanced Analytics and Learning on Temporal Data, pp. 127–142, Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2023, ISBN: 978-3-031-49896-1.

Abstract | BibTeX

Pialla, Gautier; Fawaz, Hassan Ismail; Devanne, Maxime; Weber, Jonathan; Idoumghar, Lhassane; Muller, Pierre-Alain; Bergmeir, Christoph; Schmidt, Daniel; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Forestier, Germain

Smooth Perturbations for Time Series Adversarial Attacks

Gama, João; Li, Tianrui; Yu, Yang; Chen, Enhong; Zheng, Yu; Teng, Fei (Ed.): Proceedings of the 2022 Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pp. 485-496, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2022, ISBN: 978-3-031-05933-9.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Dempster, Angus; Bergmeir, Christoph; Webb, Geoffrey I.

MultiRocket: multiple pooling operators and transformations for fast and effective time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 36, pp. 1623-1646, 2022, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Miller, Lynn; Zhu, Liujun; Yebra, Marta; Rudiger, Christoph; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Multi-modal temporal CNNs for live fuel moisture content estimation

Environmental Modelling & Software, pp. 105467, 2022, ISSN: 1364-8152.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Webb, Geoffrey I.; Petitjean, François

Tight lower bounds for Dynamic Time Warping

Pattern Recognition, vol. 115, 2021, ISSN: 0031-3203.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dempster, Angus; Schmidt, Daniel F.; Webb, Geoffrey I.

MINIROCKET: A Very Fast (Almost) Deterministic Transform for Time Series Classification

Proceedings of the 27thACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pp. 248-257, 2021.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Zhu, Liujun; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Yebra, Marta; Scortechini, Gianluca; Miller, Lynn; Petitjean, Francois

Live fuel moisture content estimation from MODIS: A deep learning approach

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vol. 179, pp. 81-91, 2021, ISSN: 0924-2716.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Herrmann, Matthieu; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Early abandoning and pruning for elastic distances including dynamic time warping

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 2577-2601, 2021.

Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Herrmann, Matthieu; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Ultra fast warping window optimization for Dynamic Time Warping

IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM-21), pp. 589-598, 2021.

Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Bergmeir, Christoph; Petitjean, Francois; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Time series extrinsic regression: Predicting numeric values from time series data

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 1032-1060, 2021, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Fawaz, Hassan Ismail; Lucas, Benjamin; Forestier, Germain; Pelletier, Charlotte; Schmidt, Daniel F.; Weber, Jonathan; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Idoumghar, Lhassane; Muller, Pierre-Alain; Petitjean, Francois

InceptionTime: Finding AlexNet for Time Series Classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 34, iss. 6, pp. 1936-1962, 2020.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Shifaz, Ahmed; Pelletier, Charlotte; Petitjean, Francois; Webb, Geoffrey I

TS-CHIEF: A Scalable and Accurate Forest Algorithm for Time Series Classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 742-775, 2020.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Petitjean, François; Webb, Geoffrey I.

FastEE: Fast Ensembles of Elastic Distances for time series classification

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 231-272, 2020, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dempster, Angus; Petitjean, Francois; Webb, Geoffrey I.

ROCKET: Exceptionally fast and accurate time series classification using random convolutional kernels

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 34, iss. 5, pp. 1454-1495, 2020.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lucas, Benjamin; Pelletier, Charlotte; Schmidt, Daniel; Webb, Geoffrey I; Petitjean, François

Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Techniques for Classification of Satellite Image Time Series

IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, pp. 1074–1077, IEEE 2020.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Pelletier, Charlotte; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Petitjean, Francois

Deep Learning for the Classification of Sentinel-2 Image Series

IEEE International Geoscience And Remote Sensing Symposium, 2019.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lucas, B.; Pelletier, C.; Inglada, J.; Schmidt, D.; Webb, G. I.; Petitjean, F

Exploring Data Quantity Requirements for Domain Adaptation in the Classification of Satellite Image Time Series

Proceedings 10th International Workshop on the Analysis of Multitemporal Remote Sensing Images, MultiTemp 2019, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2019.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lucas, Benjamin; Shifaz, Ahmed; Pelletier, Charlotte; O'Neill, Lachlan; Zaidi, Nayyar; Goethals, Bart; Petitjean, Francois; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Proximity Forest: an effective and scalable distance-based classifier for time series

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 33, pp. 607-635, 2019, ISSN: 1573-756X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Pelletier, C.; Ji, Z.; Hagolle, O.; Morse-McNabb, E.; Sheffield, K.; Webb, G. I.; Petitjean, F.

Using Sentinel-2 Image Time Series to map the State of Victoria, Australia

Proceedings 10th International Workshop on the Analysis of Multitemporal Remote Sensing Images, MultiTemp 2019, 2019.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Pelletier, Charlotte; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Petitjean, Francois

Temporal Convolutional Neural Network for the Classification of Satellite Image Time Series

Remote Sensing, vol. 11, no. 5, 2019, ISSN: 2072-4292.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Petitjean, Francois; Webb, Geoffrey I.

Elastic bands across the path: A new framework and methods to lower bound DTW

Proceedings of the 2019 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, pp. 522-530, 2019.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Herrmann, Matthieu; Forestier, Germain; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Petitjean, Francois

Efficient search of the best warping window for Dynamic Time Warping

Proceedings of the 2018 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, pp. 459-467, 2018.

Abstract | BibTeX

Forestier, Germain; Petitjean, Francois; Dau, Hoang Anh; Webb, Geoffrey I; Keogh, Eamonn

Generating synthetic time series to augment sparse datasets

IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM-17), pp. 865-870, 2017.

BibTeX

Tan, Chang Wei; Webb, Geoffrey I.; Petitjean, Francois

Indexing and classifying gigabytes of time series under time warping

Proceedings of the 2017 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, pp. 282-290, SIAM 2017.

Links | BibTeX

Petitjean, F.; Forestier, G.; Webb, G. I.; Nicholson, A. E.; Chen, Y.; Keogh, E.

Faster and more accurate classification of time series by exploiting a novel dynamic time warping averaging algorithm

Knowledge and Information Systems, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 1-26, 2016.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Petitjean, F.; Forestier, G.; Webb, G. I.; Nicholson, A.; Chen, Y.; Keogh, E.

Dynamic Time Warping Averaging of Time Series Allows Faster and More Accurate Classification

Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, pp. 470-479, 2014.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX