Anti-pheromone as a tool for better exploration of search space

Many animals use chemical substances known as pheromones to induce behavioural changes in other members of the same species. The use of pheromones by ants in particular has lead to the development of a number of computational analogues of ant colony behaviour including Ant Colony Optimisation. Although many animals use a range of pheromones in their communication, ant algorithms have typically focused on the use of just one, a substance that encourages succeeding generations of (artificial) ants to follow the same path as previous generations. Ant algorithms for multi-objective optimisation and those employing multiple colonies have made use of more than one pheromone, but the interactions between these different pheromones are largely simple extensions of single criterion, single colony ant algorithms. This paper investigates an alternative form of interaction between normal pheromone and anti-pheromone. Three variations of Ant Colony System that apply the anti-pheromone concept in different ways are described and tested against benchmark travelling salesman problems. The results indicate that the use of anti-pheromone can lead to improved performance. However, if anti-pheromone is allowed too great an influence on ants' decisions, poorer performance may result

Optimising Electrical Wiring Design of a Single-Storey Floor Plan using Multi-Objective Ant Colony System Algorithm (MOACS-EWR)

Nature-inspired algorithms are remarkable of producing optimum solutions by using the extraordinary behavior of nature. Ant colony optimisation algorithm is a foremost algorithm applied to various difficult combinatorial optimisation problems and proved successes. This research introduces a novel approach to optimise the electrical wire routes in the single-storey building through 2D walls. This study explores the applicability of Multi-Objective Ant Colony Algorithms for Electrical Wire Routing (MOACS-EWR) when optimizing the wire routes through the walls of a single-storey building. MOACS-EWR algorithm can optimise multiple objectives, length of the path and the number of bends in the path. The study was conducted using several models of rooms and finally the single-storey floor plan. Results show that MOACS-EWR algorithm can find the optimised wire routes in a floor plan.Keywords: nature-inspired algorithms, ant colony optimisation algorithm, electrical wire routing, multi-objective optimisation, MOACS-EW

A New Multi-Objective Ant Colony Optimisation Algorithm for Solving the Quadratic Assignment Problem

The multi-objective quadratic assignment problem (mQAP) is an NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problem. Real world problems are concerned with multi-objective problems which optimise more objective functions simultaneously. Moreover, QAP models many real-world optimisation problems, such as network design problems, communication problems, layout problems, etc. One of its major applications is the facility location, which is to find an assignment of all facilities to all locations in the way their total is minimised. The multi-objective QAP considers multiple types of flows between two facilities. Over the last few decades several meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed to solve the multi-objective QAP, such as genetic algorithms, Tabu search, simulated annealing, and ant colony optimisation. This paper presents a new ant colony optimisation algorithm for solving multiple objective optimisation problems, and it is named as the random weight-based ant colony optimisation algorithm (RWACO). The proposed algorithm is applied to the bi-objective quadratic assignment problem and evaluates the performance by comparing with some recently developed multiobjective ant colony optimisation algorithms. The experimental results have shown that the proposed algorithm performs better than the other multi-objective ACO algorithms considered in this study.Keywords: ACO, multi-objective problem, QAP, travelling salesman proble

Ant colony optimisation algorithms for solving multi-objective power-aware metrics for mobile ad hoc networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructure-less multi-hop network where each node communicates with other nodes directly or indirectly through intermediate nodes. Thus, all nodes in a MANET basically function as mobile routers participating in some routing protocol required for deciding and maintaining the routes. Since MANETs are infrastructure-less, self-organizing, rapidly deployable wireless networks, they are highly suitable for applications such as military tactical operations, search and rescue missions, disaster relief operations, and target tracking. Building such ad-hoc networks poses a significant technical challenge because of energy constraints and specifically in relation to the application of wireless network protocols. As a result of its highly dynamic and distributed nature, the routing layer within the wireless network protocol stack, presents one of the key technical challenges in MANETs. In particular, energy efficient routing may be the most important design criterion for MANETs since mobile nodes are powered by batteries with limited capacity and variable recharge frequency, according to application demand. In order to conserve power it is essential that a routing protocol be designed to guarantee data delivery even should most of the nodes be asleep and not forwarding packets to other nodes. Load distribution constitutes another important approach to the optimisation of active communication energy. Load distribution enables the maximisation of the network lifetime by facilitating the avoidance of over-utilised nodes when a route is in the process of being selected. Routing algorithms for mobile networks that attempt to optimise routes while at- tempting to retain a small message overhead and maximise the network lifetime has been put forward. However certain of these routing protocols have proved to have a negative impact on node and network lives by inadvertently over-utilising the energy resources of a small set of nodes in favour of others. The conservation of power and careful sharing of the cost of routing packets would ensure an increase in both node and network lifetimes. This thesis proposes simultaneously, by using an ant colony optimisation (ACO) approach, to optimise five power-aware metrics that do result in energy-efficient routes and also to maximise the MANET's lifetime while taking into consideration a realistic mobility model. By using ACO algorithms a set of optimal solutions - the Pareto-optimal set - is found. This thesis proposes five algorithms to solve the multi-objective problem in the routing domain. The first two algorithms, namely, the energy e±ciency for a mobile network using a multi-objective, ant colony optimisation, multi-pheromone (EEMACOMP) algorithm and the energy efficiency for a mobile network using a multi-objective, ant colony optimisation, multi-heuristic (EEMACOMH) algorithm are both adaptations of multi-objective, ant colony optimisation algorithms (MOACO) which are based on the ant colony system (ACS) algorithm. The new algorithms are constructive which means that in every iteration, every ant builds a complete solution. In order to guide the transition from one state to another, the algorithms use pheromone and heuristic information. The next two algorithms, namely, the energy efficiency for a mobile network using a multi-objective, MAX-MIN ant system optimisation, multi-pheromone (EEMMASMP) algorithm and the energy efficiency for a mobile network using a multi-objective, MAX- MIN ant system optimisation, multi-heuristic (EEMMASMH) algorithm, both solve the above multi-objective problem by using an adaptation of the MAX-MIN ant system optimisation algorithm. The last algorithm implemented, namely, the energy efficiency for a mobile network using a multi-objective, ant colony optimisation, multi-colony (EEMACOMC) algorithm uses a multiple colony ACO algorithm. From the experimental results the final conclusions may be summarised as follows: Ant colony, multi-objective optimisation algorithms are suitable for mobile ad hoc networks. These algorithms allow for high adaptation to frequent changes in the topology of the network. All five algorithms yielded substantially better results than the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) in terms of the quality of the solution. All the results prove that the EEMACOMP outperforms the other four ACO algorithms as well as the NSGA-II algorithm in terms of the number of solutions, closeness to the true Pareto front and diversity. Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Computer Scienceunrestricte

Optimal dynamic operations scheduling for small-scale satellites

A satellite's operations schedule is crafted based on each subsystem/payload operational needs, while taking into account the available resources on-board. A number of operating modes are carefully designed, each one with a different operations plan that can serve emergency cases, reduced functionality cases, the nominal case, the end of mission case and so on. During the mission span, should any operations planning amendments arise, a new schedule needs to be manually developed and uplinked to the satellite during a communications' window. The current operations planning techniques over a reduced number of solutions while approaching operations scheduling in a rigid manner. Given the complexity of a satellite as a system as well as the numerous restrictions and uncertainties imposed by both environmental and technical parameters, optimising the operations scheduling in an automated fashion can over a flexible approach while enhancing the mission robustness. In this paper we present Opt-OS (Optimised Operations Scheduler), a tool loosely based on the Ant Colony System algorithm, which can solve the Dynamic Operations Scheduling Problem (DOSP). The DOSP is treated as a single-objective multiple constraint discrete optimisation problem, where the objective is to maximise the useful operation time per subsystem on-board while respecting a set of constraints such as the feasible operation timeslot per payload or maintaining the power consumption below a specific threshold. Given basic mission inputs such as the Keplerian elements of the satellite's orbit, its launch date as well as the individual subsystems' power consumption and useful operation periods, Opt-OS outputs the optimal ON/OFF state per subsystem per orbital time step, keeping each subsystem's useful operation time to a maximum while ensuring that constraints such as the power availability threshold are never violated. Opt-OS can provide the flexibility needed for designing an optimal operations schedule on the spot throughout any mission phase as well as the ability to automatically schedule operations in case of emergency. Furthermore, Opt-OS can be used in conjunction with multi-objective optimisation tools for performing full system optimisation. Based on the optimal operations schedule, subsystem design parameters are being optimised in order to achieve the maximal usage of the satellite while keeping its mass minimal

Automatic MGA trajectory planning with a modified ant colony optimization algorithm

This paper assesses the problem of designing multiple gravity assist (MGA) trajectories, including the sequence of planetary encounters. The problem is treated as planning and scheduling of events, such that the original mixed combinatorial-continuous problem is discretised and converted into a purely discrete problem with a finite number of states. We propose the use of a two-dimensional trajectory model in which pairs of celestial bodies are connected by transfer arcs containing one deep-space manoeuvre. A modified Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) algorithm is then used to look for the optimal solutions. This approach was applied to the design of optimal transfers to Saturn and to Mercury, and a comparison against standard genetic algorithm based optimisers shows its effectiveness

MGA trajectory planning with an ACO-inspired algorithm

Given a set of celestial bodies, the problem of finding an optimal sequence of gravity assist manoeuvres, deep space manoeuvres (DSM) and transfer arcs connecting two or more bodies in the set is combinatorial in nature. The number of possible paths grows exponentially with the number of celestial bodies. Therefore, the design of an optimal multiple gravity assist (MGA) trajectory is a NP-hard mixed combinatorial-continuous problem, and its automated solution would greatly improve the assessment of multiple alternative mission options in a shorter time. This work proposes to formulate the complete automated design of a multiple gravity assist trajectory as an autonomous planning and scheduling problem. The resulting scheduled plan will provide the planetary sequence for a multiple gravity assist trajectory and a good estimation of the optimality of the associated trajectories. We propose the use of a two-dimensional trajectory model in which pairs of celestial bodies are connected by transfer arcs containing one DSM. The problem of matching the position of the planet at the time of arrival is solved by varying the pericentre of the preceding swing-by, or the magnitude of the launch excess velocity, for the first arc. By using this model, for each departure date we can generate a full tree of possible transfers from departure to destination. Each leaf of the tree represents a planetary encounter and a possible way to reach that planet. An algorithm inspired by Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is devised to explore the space of possible plans. The ants explore the tree from departure to destination adding one node at the time: every time an ant is at a node, a probability function is used to select one of the remaining feasible directions. This approach to automatic trajectory planning is applied to the design of optimal transfers to Saturn and among the Galilean moons of Jupiter, and solutions are compared to those found through traditional genetic-algorithm-based techniques