A survey: Ant Colony Optimization based recent research and implementation on several engineering domain

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a Swarm Intelligence technique which inspired from the foraging behaviour of real ant colonies. The ants deposit pheromone on the ground in order to mark the route for identification of their routes from the nest to food that should be followed by other members of the colony. This ACO exploits an optimization mechanism for solving discrete optimization problems in various engineering domain. From the early nineties, when the first Ant Colony Optimization algorithm was proposed, ACO attracted the attention of increasing numbers of researchers and many successful applications are now available. Moreover, a substantial corpus of theoretical results is becoming available that provides useful guidelines to researchers and practitioners in further applications of ACO. This paper review varies recent research and implementation of ACO, and proposed a modified ACO model which is applied for network routing problem and compared with existing traditional routing algorithms.     

High speed ant colony optimization CMOS chip

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is an optimization computation inspired by the study of the ant colonies’ behavior. This paper presents design and CMOS implementation of the ant colony optimization based algorithm for solving the TSP problem. In order to implement ant colony optimization algorithm in CMOS, we will present a new algorithm. This algorithm is based on the original ant colony optimization but it can be implemented in CMOS. Briefly, pheromone matrix is transformed on the chip area and ants move up-down through the pheromone matrix and they make their decisions. Finally ants select a global path. In previous researches only pheromone values is used, but select the next city in this paper is based on heuristics value and pheromone value. In definition of problem, we use heuristics value as a matrix. Previous researches could not be used for wide type of optimization problem but our chip gives heuristics value initially and we can change initial value of heuristics value according to the optimization problem so this capability increases the flexibility of ACO chip. Simple circuit is used in blocks of our chip to increase the speed of convergence of ACO chip. We use Linear Feedback Shift Register (LSFR) circuit for random number generator in ACO chip. ACO chip has capability of solving the big TSP problem. ACO chip is simulated by HSPICE software and simulation results show the good performance of final chip.     

On some applications of ant colony optimization metaheuristic to plane truss optimization

Ant colony optimization metaheuristic (ACO) represents a new class of algorithms particularly suited to solve real-world combinatorial optimization problems. ACO algorithms, published for the first time in 1991 by M. Dorigo [Optimization, learning and natural algorithms (in Italian). Ph.D. Thesis, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, 1992] and his coworkers, have been applied, particularly starting from 1999 (Bonabeau et al., Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999; Dorigo et al., Artificial life 5(2):137–172, 1999; Dorigo and Di Caro, Ant colony optimization: a new metaheuristic, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1999; Dorigo et al., Ant colony optimization and swarm intelligence, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2004; Dorigo and Stutzle, Ant colony optimization, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004), to several kinds of optimization problems such as the traveling salesman problem, quadratic assignment problem, vehicle routing, sequential ordering, scheduling, graph coloring, management of communications networks, and so on. The ant colony optimization metaheuristic takes inspiration from the studies of real ant colonies’ foraging behavior. The main characteristic of such colonies is that individuals have no global knowledge of problem solving but communicate indirectly among themselves, depositing on the ground a chemical substance called pheromone, which influences probabilistically the choice of subsequent ants, which tend to follow paths where the pheromone concentration is higher. Such behavior, called stigmergy, is the basic mechanism that controls ant activity and permits them to take the shortest path connecting their nest to a food source. In this paper, it is shown how to convert natural ant behavior to algorithms able to escape from local minima and find global minimum solutions to constrained combinatorial problems. Some examples on plane trusses are also presented.     

基于Spark的蚁群优化算法

为应对大数据时代中组合优化问题的求解,基于云计算框架Spark,借助其基于内存、分布式的特定,提出一种并行蚁群优化算法。其思路是通过将蚂蚁构造为弹性分布式数据集,由此给出相应的一系列转换算子,实现了蚂蚁构造解过程的并行化。通过在旅行商问题(TSP)求解的仿真实验结果说明了所提出的并行算法的可行性;并在同等实验环境下对比基于MapReduce的蚁群优化算法,优化速度提升达10倍以上。     

RMACO :a randomly matched parallel ant colony optimization

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), inspired by the foraging behavior of real ants, is a widely applied bionic algorithm. Driven by the requirements of applications and the advances of computing technologies, ACO has been studied extensively, and the parallelism of ACO becomes an important research area. In this paper, we analyze the key factors that affect the performance of parallel ACO, based on which we propose a randomly matched parallel ant colony optimization (RMACO) using MPI. In RMACO, we design a new interconnection communication topology based on which the processors communicate with each other using a randomly matched method, and propose a non-fixed exchange cycle as well. All of these ensure the quality of the solution found by ACO and reduce the execution time. The experimental results show that RMACO has better efficiency compared with existing typical parallel ACO approaches.     

基于蚁群优化的网络路由算法及其NS仿真

随着网络日趋复杂,求解实际的网络路由问题成为了一个NP一难问题。蚁群优化算法作为一种启发式算法近年来被广泛的用于求解复杂的NP一难问题,在对蚁群优化算法进行研究的基础上,给出了基于蚁群优化的网络路由算法一AntNet算法的原理及其NS仿真。仿真结果表明,该算法很好地利用了蚁群算法的正反馈性,能依概率随机且有效选择下一个节点,从而使网络流量按路径费用好坏,分散在多条可能的路径中,达到平衡流量、减小拥塞现象出现的目的。     

Improved auto control ant colony optimization using lazy ant approach for grid scheduling problem

An auto controlled ant colony optimization algorithm controls the behavior of the ant colony algorithm automatically based on a priori heuristic. During the experimental study of auto controlled ACO algorithm on grid scheduling problem, it was observed that the induction of lazy ants not only reduces the time complexity of the algorithm but also produces better results on the given objectives. Lazy ants are basically a mutated version of active ants that remain alive till the fitter lazy ants are generated in the successive generations. This work presents an improved auto controlled ACO algorithm using the lazy ant concept. Performance study reveals the efficacy and the efficiency achieved by the proposed algorithm. A comparative study of the proposed method with some other recent meta-heuristics such as auto controlled ant colony optimization algorithm, genetic algorithm, quantum genetic algorithm, simulated annealing and particle swarm optimization for grid scheduling problem exhibits so.     

Ant colony optimization for routing and load-balancing: survey and new directions

Although an ant is a simple creature, collectively a colony of ants performs useful tasks such as finding the shortest path to a food source and sharing this information with other ants by depositing pheromone. In the field of ant colony optimization (ACO), models of collective intelligence of ants are transformed into useful optimization techniques that find applications in computer networking. In this survey, the problem-solving paradigm of ACO is explicated and compared to traditional routing algorithms along the issues of routing information, routing overhead and adaptivity. The contributions of this survey include 1) providing a comparison and critique of the state-of-the-art approaches for mitigating stagnation (a major problem in many ACO algorithms), 2) surveying and comparing three major research in applying ACO in routing and load-balancing, and 3) discussing new directions and identifying open problems. The approaches for mitigating stagnation discussed include: evaporation, aging, pheromone smoothing and limiting, privileged pheromone laying and pheromone-heuristic control. The survey on ACO in routing/load-balancing includes comparison and critique of ant-based control and its ramifications, AntNet and its extensions, as well as ASGA and SynthECA. Discussions on new directions include an ongoing work of the authors in applying multiple ant colony optimization in load-balancing.     

多维背包问题的一个蚁群优化算法

蚁群优化(ACO)是一种通用的启发式方法,已被用来求解很多离散优化问题.近年来,已提出几个ACO算法求解多维背包问题(MKP).这些算法虽然能获得较好的解但也耗用太多的CPU时间.为了降低用ACO求解MKP的复杂性,文章基于一种已提出但未实现过的MKP的信息素表示定义了新的选择概率的规则和相应的基于背包项的一种序的启发式信息,从而提出了一种计算复杂性较低、求解性能较好的改进型蚁群算法.实验结果表明,无论串行执行还是虚拟并行执行,在计算相同任务时,新算法耗用时间少且解的价值更高.不仅如此,在实验中,文中的新算法获得了ORLIB中测试算例5.250-22的两个"新"解.     

增强型的蚁群优化算法

旅行商问题是一个NP-Hard组合优化问题。根据蚁群优化算法和旅行商问题的特点,论文提出了对蚁群中具有优质解的蚂蚁个体所走路径上的信息素强度进行增强的方法,并同其他的优化算法进行了比较,仿真结果表明,对具有全局和局部最优解的个体所走路径上的信息素强度进行增强的蚁群优化算法比标准的蚁群优化算法和其他优化算法在执行效率和稳定性上要高。     

Minimizing the multimodal functions with Ant Colony Optimization approach

The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms, which are inspired by the behaviour of ants to find solutions to combinatorial optimization problem, are multi-agent systems. This paper presents the ACO-based algorithm that is used to find the global minimum of a nonconvex function. The algorithm is based on that each ant searches only around the best solution of the previous iteration. This algorithm was tested on some standard test functions, and successful results were obtained. Its performance was compared with the other algorithms, and was observed to be better.     

Multi-satellite control resource scheduling based on ant colony optimization

The multi-satellite control resource scheduling problem (MSCRSP) is a kind of large-scale combinatorial optimization problem. As the solution space of the problem is sparse, the optimization process is very complicated. Ant colony optimization as one of heuristic method is wildly used by other researchers to solve many practical problems. An algorithm of multi-satellite control resource scheduling problem based on ant colony optimization (MSCRSP–ACO) is presented in this paper. The main idea of MSCRSP–ACO is that pheromone trail update by two stages to avoid algorithm trapping into local optima. The main procedures of this algorithm contain three processes. Firstly, the data get by satellite control center should be preprocessed according to visible arcs. Secondly, aiming to minimize the working burden as optimization objective, the optimization model of MSCRSP, called complex independent set model (CISM), is developed based on visible arcs and working periods. Ant colony algorithm can be used directly to solve CISM. Lastly, a novel ant colony algorithm, called MSCRSP–ACO, is applied to CISM. From the definition of pheromone and heuristic information to the updating strategy of pheromone is described detailed. The effect of parameters on the algorithm performance is also studied by experimental method. The experiment results demonstrate that the global exploration ability and solution quality of the MSCRSP–ACO is superior to existed algorithms such as genetic algorithm, iterative repair algorithm and max–min ant system.     

Population declining ant colony optimization algorithm and its applications

Population declining ant colony optimization (PDACO) algorithm is proposed and applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and multiuser detection in this paper. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have already successfully been used in combinatorial optimization, however, as the pheromone accumulates, we may not get a global optimum because it stops searching early. PDACO can enlarge searching range through increasing the initial population of the ant colony, and the population declines in successive iterations. So, the performance of PDACO is superior with the same computational complexity. PDACO is applied to TSP and multiuser detection. Via computer simulations it is shown that PDACO has better performance in solving these two problems than ACO algorithms.     

引入梯度下降的蚁群算法求解多约束服务质量路由

针对目前多数改进蚁群算法求解多约束服务质量路由（QoSR）存在收敛速度慢、易陷入局部最优从而效率不高的问题,提出一种引入梯度下降的蚁群算法（ACAGD）。该算法将梯度下降法引入到蚁群的局部搜索中,结合残余信息素,综合决定蚂蚁的下一跳选择策略。蚁群不仅以一定概率按照信息素浓度搜索下一跳,还将以一定概率按照梯度下降法搜索下一跳,从而降低传统蚁群算法容易陷入局部最优的可能性。利用Waxman网络模型随机生成不同路由节点数量的网络拓扑进行仿真实验。实验结果表明,ACAGD相比其他改进蚁群算法,能够在收敛速度不受影响的情况下,取得综合代价相对较低的路由,且算法的稳定性较好。     

基于记忆表的连续蚁群优化算法

蚁群算法的离散本质限制了其在连续问题求解中的应用,针对该问题提出求解连续函数优化问题的连续蚁群优化算法。对概率密度呈高斯分布的分布函数进行随机采样,为每只蚂蚁产生下一步迭代的 个候选位置,引入记忆表取代基本蚁群算法中的禁忌表,通过对记忆表中的优良解进行动态替换实现信息素更新。与其他连续优化算法的比较结果证明,该算法在复杂度、稳定性等方面具有优势。     

含维变异算子的连续域蚁群算法

针对在连续优化中,蚁群算法(ACO)存在的收敛速度慢和易陷入局部最优的问题,提出了一种新的含维变异算子的连续域蚁群算法(DMCACO)。该算法采用动态随机抽取的方法来确定目标个体,引导蚁群进行全局的快速搜索,同时在当前最优蚂蚁邻域内进行小步长的局部搜索。在定义了维多样性概念的基础上,引入维变异算子对维多样性最差的维进行变异：让所有蚂蚁在该维上的位置重新均匀分布在可行区域上。对测试函数所做的仿真实验表明,该算法具有优良的全局寻优能力和快速的收敛能力。     

Runtime Analysis of an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for TSP Instances

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a relatively new random heuristic approach for solving optimization problems. The main application of the ACO algorithm lies in the field of combinatorial optimization, and the traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the first benchmark problem to which the ACO algorithm has been applied. However, relatively few results on the runtime analysis of the ACO on the TSP are available. This paper presents the first rigorous analysis of a simple ACO algorithm called (1 + 1) MMAA (Max-Min ant algorithm) on the TSP. The expected runtime bounds for (1 + 1) MMAA on two TSP instances of complete and non-complete graphs are obtained. The influence of the parameters controlling the relative importance of pheromone trail versus visibility is also analyzed, and their choice is shown to have an impact on the expected runtime.     

一类用于连续域寻优的蚁群算法

由真实蚁群觅食行为启发而来的经典蚁群算法,非常适合解决组合优化问题,但经典蚁群算法的离散性本质也限制了其在连续空间问题求解中的应用。为此,提出了一种用于连续域寻优的改进蚁群算法。局部搜索上基于解决离散域问题的经典蚁群优化思想,全局搜索利用类似于遗传算法的交叉、变异操作-称为Ant Diffusion和Ant Walk方法,每代寻优结束后均采用"精英策略"把本代最优个体保留到下一代中。最后,采用改进算法对几个基准函数做了寻优测试,都取得了良好的效果,证明了算法的有效性。     

Modeling the dynamics of ant colony optimization

The dynamics of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms is studied using a deterministic model that assumes an average expected behavior of the algorithms. The ACO optimization metaheuristic is an iterative approach, where in every iteration, artificial ants construct solutions randomly but guided by pheromone information stemming from former ants that found good solutions. The behavior of ACO algorithms and the ACO model are analyzed for certain types of permutation problems. It is shown analytically that the decisions of an ant are influenced in an intriguing way by the use of the pheromone information and the properties of the pheromone matrix. This explains why ACO algorithms can show a complex dynamic behavior even when there is only one ant per iteration and no competition occurs. The ACO model is used to describe the algorithm behavior as a combination of situations with different degrees of competition between the ants. This helps to better understand the dynamics of the algorithm when there are several ants per iteration as is always the case when using ACO algorithms for optimization. Simulations are done to compare the behavior of the ACO model with the ACO algorithm. Results show that the deterministic model describes essential features of the dynamics of ACO algorithms quite accurately, while other aspects of the algorithms behavior cannot be found in the model.     

Ant colony algorithms in MANETs: A review

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) consist of special kind of wireless mobile nodes which form a temporary network without using any infrastructure or centralized administration. MANETs can be used in wide range of future applications as they have the capability to establish networks at anytime, anywhere without aid of any established infrastructure. It is a challenging task to find most efficient routing due to the changing topology and the dynamic behavior of the nodes in MANET. It has been found that ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms can give better results as they are having characterization of Swarm Intelligence (SI) which is highly suitable for finding the adaptive routing for such type of volatile network. ACO algorithms are inspired by a foraging behavior of group of ants which are able to find optimal path based upon some defined metric which is evaluated during the motion of ants. ACO routing algorithms use simple agents called artificial ants which establish optimum paths between source and destination that communicate indirectly with each other by means of stigmergy. Keeping in view of the above, in this paper we provide a taxonomy of various ant colony algorithms with advantages and disadvantages of each others with respect to various metrics.