The ant colony metaphor for multiple knapsack problem

This paper presents an Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) model for the Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP). The ACO algorithms, as well as other evolutionary metaphors, are being applied successfully to diverse heavily constrained problems: Travelling Salesman Problem, Quadratic Assignment Problem and Bin Packing Problem. An Ant System, the first ACO algorithm that we presented in this paper, is also considered a class of multiagent distributed algorithm for combinatorial optimisation. The principle of an ACO Algorithm is adapted to the MKP. We present some results regardin its perfomance against known optimun for different instances of MKP. The obtained results show the potential power of this particular evolutionary approach for optimisation problems.Facultad de Informátic

The Use of Persistent Explorer Artificial Ants to Solve the Car Sequencing Problem

Ant Colony Optimisation is a widely researched meta-heuristic which uses the behaviour and pheromone laying activities of foraging ants to find paths through graphs. Since the early 1990’s this approach has been applied to problems such as the Travelling Salesman Problem, Quadratic Assignment Problem and Car Sequencing Problem to name a few. The ACO is not without its problems it tends to find good local optima and not good global optima. To solve this problem modifications have been made to the original ACO such as the Max Min ant system. Other solutions involve combining it with Evolutionary Algorithms to improve results. These improvements focused on the pheromone structures. Inspired by other swarm intelligence algorithms this work attempts to develop a new type of ant to explore different problem paths and thus improve the algorithm. The exploring ant would persist throughout the running time of the algorithm and explore unused paths. The Car Sequencing problem was chosen as a method to test the Exploring Ants. An existing algorithm was modified to implement the explorers. The results show that for the car sequencing problem the exploring ants did not have any positive impact, as the paths they chose were always sub-optimal

The ant colony metaphor for multiple knapsack problem

This paper presents an Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) model for the Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP). The ACO algorithms, as well as other evolutionary metaphors, are being applied successfully to diverse heavily constrained problems: Travelling Salesman Problem, Quadratic Assignment Problem and Bin Packing Problem. An Ant System, the first ACO algorithm that we presented in this paper, is also considered a class of multiagent distributed algorithm for combinatorial optimisation. The principle of an ACO Algorithm is adapted to the MKP. We present some results regardin its perfomance against known optimun for different instances of MKP. The obtained results show the potential power of this particular evolutionary approach for optimisation problems.Facultad de Informátic

Multi-colony ant systems for multi-hose routing

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2012 International Journal of Computer Applications.Ant System (AS) is a general purpose heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behaviour of real ant colonies. AS and its improved versions have been successfully applied to difficult combinatorial optimization problems such as travelling salesman problem, quadratic assignment problem and job shop scheduling. In this paper, two versions of multi-colony ant systems that are extensions to the AS are proposed for the multi-hose routing. In both versions, each colony of ants searches for an optimum path between two end points (or commodities). While each colony searches for optimum paths, they try to maximum use of other colonies paths (sharing paths, or bundling) for easy handling of multiple paths. The first version uses a single pheromone matrix for all colonies and the second version uses different pheromone matrices for each colony and a modified random propositional rule to attract ants toward foreign pheromones. The tessellated format of the obstacles was used in the algorithm instead of the original shapes of the obstacles. As a result of using this format, the algorithm can handle freeform obstacles and speed up the algorithm when checking the collision detections. The experimental results show that there is no significant difference in the quality of the solutions produced by two versions and the first version takes less computation time. Further first version needs low computer memory and one parameter lesser than of the second version

A swarm intelligence based approach to the mine detection problem

This research focuses on the application of swarm intelligence to the problem of mine detection. Swarm Intelligence concepts have captivated the interests of researchers mainly in collective robotics, optimization problems (traveling salesman problem (TSP), quadratic assignment problem, graph coloring etc.), and communication networks (routing) etc [1]. In the mine detection problem we are faced with sub problems such as searching for the mines over the minefield, defusing them effectively, and assuring that the field is clear of mines within the least possible time. In the problem, we assume that the mines can be diffused by the collective action of the robots for which a model based on ant colonies is given. In the first part of the project we study the ant colony system applied to the mine detection problem. The theoretical aspects such as the ant\u27s behavior (reaction of the ants to various circumstances that it faces), their motion over the minefield, and their process of defusing the mines are investigated. In the second section we highlight a certain formulation that the ants may be given for doing the task effectively. The ants do the task effectively when they are able to assure that the minefield is clear of the mines within the least possible time. A compilation of the results obtained by the various studies is tabulated. In the third and final section we talk about our emulations conducted on the Multi Agent Biorobotics Lab-built groundscout robots, which were used for the demonstration of our swarm intelligence-based algorithms at a practical basis. The various projects thus far conducted were a part of the Multi Agent Biorobotics Lab at Rochester Institute of Technology

Applications of Bee Colony Optimization

Many computationally difficult problems are attacked using non-exact algorithms, such as approximation algorithms and heuristics. This thesis investigates an ex- ample of the latter, Bee Colony Optimization, on both an established optimization problem in the form of the Quadratic Assignment Problem and the FireFighting problem, which has not been studied before as an optimization problem. Bee Colony Optimization is a swarm intelligence algorithm, a paradigm that has increased in popularity in recent years, and many of these algorithms are based on natural pro- cesses. We tested the Bee Colony Optimization algorithm on the QAPLIB library of Quadratic Assignment Problem instances, which have either optimal or best known solutions readily available, and enabled us to compare the quality of solutions found by the algorithm. In addition, we implemented a couple of other well known algorithms for the Quadratic Assignment Problem and consequently we could analyse the runtime of our algorithm. We introduce the Bee Colony Optimization algorithm for the FireFighting problem. We also implement some greedy algorithms and an Ant Colony Optimization al- gorithm for the FireFighting problem, and compare the results obtained on some randomly generated instances. We conclude that Bee Colony Optimization finds good solutions for the Quadratic Assignment Problem, however further investigation on speedup methods is needed to improve its performance to that of other algorithms. In addition, Bee Colony Optimization is effective on small instances of the FireFighting problem, however as instance size increases the results worsen in comparison to the greedy algorithms, and more work is needed to improve the decisions made on these instances

Facility layout problem: Bibliometric and benchmarking analysis

Facility layout problem is related to the location of departments in a facility area, with the aim of determining the most effective configuration. Researches based on different approaches have been published in the last six decades and, to prove the effectiveness of the results obtained, several instances have been developed. This paper presents a general overview on the extant literature on facility layout problems in order to identify the main research trends and propose future research questions. Firstly, in order to give the reader an overview of the literature, a bibliometric analysis is presented. Then, a clusterization of the papers referred to the main instances reported in literature was carried out in order to create a database that can be a useful tool in the benchmarking procedure for researchers that would approach this kind of problems

Ants constructing rule-based classifiers.

Classifiers; Data; Data mining; Studies;