Multi-Colony Ant Algorithm Applied to the Yangtze Gorges Ship Lock Arrangement Optimization

Abstract

The Yangtze River is the largest river in China, and the navigable resources are abundant, with the development of the economic belt along the Yangtze River, a large number of ships have been backlogged, which result in the Yangtze Gorges ship locks navigable capacity insufficient contradictions obviously and increasingly. In case of special weather or ship locks maintenance, ships will pile up. Based on the analysis of influencing factors of the ship lock navigable capacity, this paper draws the conclusion that the maximum value problem about the lockage tonnage every time is actually a problem of the ship lock arrangement optimization, establishes the Multi-Colony Ant Algorithm for the ship lock arrangement optimization, furtherly designs and implements the corresponding algorithm, and tests the algorithm through two examples. The experimental results show that the Multi-Colony Ant Algorithm is effective to the arrangement optimization of the Yangtze Gorges ship lock, it can improve the practical navigable capacity of the Yangtze Gorges ship lock.