Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm Research Articles

An improved dynamic model identification method for small unmanned helicopter

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce an improved system identification method for small unmanned helicopters combining adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm and Levy’s method and to solve the problem of low model prediction accuracy caused by low-frequency domain curve fitting in the small unmanned helicopter frequency domain parameter identification method.Design/methodology/approachThis method uses the Levy method to obtain the initial parameters of the fitting model, uses the global optimization characteristics of the adaptive ant colony algorithm and the advantages of avoiding the “premature” phenomenon to optimize the initial parameters and finally obtains a small unmanned helicopter through computational optimization Kinetic models under lateral channel and longitudinal channel.FindingsThe algorithm is verified by flight test data. The verification results show that the established dynamic model has high identification accuracy and can accurately reflect the dynamic characteristics of small unmanned helicopter flight.Originality/valueThis paper presents a novel and improved frequency domain identification method for small unmanned helicopters. Compared with the conventional method, this method improves the identification accuracy and reduces the identification error.

Vessel traffic scheduling optimization for passenger RoRo terminals with restricted harbor basin

Passenger Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) shipping plays an essential role in short–distance waterway transport. An increasing number of RoRo passenger terminals adopt the layout of jetty berths in the restricted harbor basin surrounded by breakwater for the purpose of saving sea area, but ships cannot meet in the harbor basin due to inadequate water area. For the benefits of port authority, shipping company and maritime safety administration, it is an urgent problem to make a safe and efficient ship scheduling scheme in the busy RoRo passenger terminal with the restricted harbor basin. This paper formulates a multi-objective mathematical model for the integrated scheduling optimization of fairway and turning basin, with the minimum total scheduling time and total waiting time as the objective functions. Meanwhile, an adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm (AACO) is provided aimed at the proposed model, where minimizing the total waiting time is the fitness function. And the other one goal is reflected in heuristic information values, and then the selection process is affected. Numerical experiments on Xuwen terminal, the largest passenger RoRo terminal all around the world, indicate that the model has shorter total scheduling time and total waiting time compared with actual operation data. Effective solutions obtained by the proposed model and algorithm not only fundamentally increase safety and efficiency, but also improve the availability of turning basin and fairway. This study hence comes up with management insights to help port authority, shipping company and maritime safety administration.

DAACO: adaptive dynamic quantity of ant ACO algorithm to solve the traveling salesman problem

AbstractThe traveling salesman problem (TSP) is an NP-hard problem. Thus far, a large number of researchers have proposed different ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms to solve the TSP. These algorithms inevitably encounter problems such as long convergence time and the tendency to easily fall into local optima. On the basis of the ACO algorithm, this study proposes a dynamic adaptive ACO algorithm (DAACO). DAACO realizes the diversity of initialization of the ACO algorithm by dynamically determining the number of ants to be prevented from falling into local optimization. DAACO also adopts a hybrid local selection strategy to increase the quality of ant optimization and reduce the optimization time. Among the 20 instances of the TSPLIB dataset, the DAACO algorithm obtains 19 optimal values, and the solutions of 10 instances are better than those of other algorithms. The experimental results on the TSPLIB dataset show that the DAACO algorithm has obvious advantages in terms of convergence time, solution quality, and average value relative to existing state-of-the-art ACO algorithms.

Modified adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm and its application for solving path planning of mobile robot

As the key point for auto-navigation of mobile robot, path planning is a research hotspot in the field of robot. Generally, the ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) is one of the commonly used approaches aiming to solve the problem of path planning of mobile robot. Nevertheless, the traditional ACO has the shortcomings such as slow convergence speed, inefficiency and easily fall into local optimal values. Thus, a novel variant of ACO is proposed in this study. In detail, a new heuristic mechanism with orientation information is firstly introduced to add direction guidance during the iteration process, further to advance the convergence speed of algorithm. Secondly, an improved heuristic function is presented to enhance the purposiveness and reduce the number of turn times of planned path. Then, an improved state transition probability rule is introduced to improve the search efficiency significantly and increase the swarm diversity. Moreover, a new method for unevenly distributing initial pheromone concentration is proposed to avoid blind searching. After integrating the four improvements, the new variation of ACO called modified adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm (MAACO) is formed. Subsequently, parameter optimization of MAACO is carried out. For verifying the effectiveness of the proposed MAACO, a series of experiments are conducted based on five static space environment modes and one dynamic environment mode. Comparing with 13 existing approaches for solving the problem of path planning of mobile robot, including several variants of ACO and two commonly used algorithms (A* algorithm and Dijkstra algorithm), the experimental results demonstrate the merits of MAACO in terms of decreasing the path length, reducing the number of turn times, and promoting the convergence speed. In detail, in all the static simulation experiments, the proposed MAACO generates the shortest path length with a standard deviation of zero, and achieves the least number of turn times within the smallest convergence generation. In terms of the five experiments, the average number of reducing turn times is two with a generally reduction ratio of 22.2% compared with the best existing results. The obtained results of MAACO prove its practicality and high-efficiency for path planning.

Improved dynamic adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm to solve pipe routing design

With the purpose of finding a satisfactory pipe path between the starting point and target point, pipe routing design (PRD) has been applied in many industry fields. The research of two-dimensional PRD is the foundation of solving complex RPD problems, and has widely applications in factory layout, facilities installation, and so on. The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is one of the most widely used approaches to solve PRD. However, the traditional ACO has drawbacks such as slow convergence speed, easy to fall into local optimum and low efficiency. In this study, an improved dynamic adaptive ACO (IDAACO) is proposed. The IDAACO includes four novel mechanisms which are the heuristic strategy with direction information, adaptive pseudorandom transfer strategy, improved local pheromone updating mechanism and improved global pheromone updating mechanism. Then, a series of experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the four proposed mechanisms included by IDAACO. Subsequently, the IDAACO is compared with several existing approaches for solving PRD, and the experimental results confirm the advantages of IDAACO in terms of the practicality and high-efficiency. Finally, the IDAACO is used to solve the PRD problem for semi-submersible production platform in oil and gas industry.

Adaptive cooperative ant colony optimization algorithm based on reinforcement incentive and its application

Ant colony algorithm has great advantages in solving some NP complete problems, but it also has some problems such as slow search speed, low convergence accuracy and easy to fall into local optimum. In order to balance the contradiction between the convergence accuracy and the convergence speed of ant colony algorithm, this paper first proposes an ant colony algorithm (RIACO) based on the reinforcement excitation theory of Burrus Frederic Skinner. In this algorithm, pheromone is stimulated and its volatilization coefficient is adjusted adaptively according to the iteration times, thus the speed of ant colony search is accelerated. Secondly, based on the characteristics of real ant colony classification and division of labor, this paper proposes an ant colony algorithm based on labor division and cooperation (LCACO). The algorithm divides the ant colony into two different types of ant colony for information exchange and improves the state transition probability formula, so that the two ant colonies can search the optimal path cooperatively, so as to improve the precision of ant colony search. Finally, combining the two improved ant colony algorithms, this paper proposes an adaptive cooperative ant colony optimization algorithm based on reinforcement incentive (SMCAACO). A multi constrained vehicle routing problem (MCVRP) is compared with the classical tabu search algorithm (TS), variable neighborhood search algorithm (VNS) and basic ant colony algorithm (ACO). The experimental results show that, in solving the mcvrp problem, the algorithm proposed in this paper not only has a good performance in the solution results, but also achieves a good balance between the convergence speed and the convergence accuracy.

An Intelligent Cloud Workflow Scheduling System With Time Estimation and Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization

The introduction of workflow in cloud computing has afforded a new and efficient way to tackle large-scale applications. As an NP-hard problem, how to schedule cloud workflows effectively and economically with deadline constraints and different kinds of tasks and resources is extraordinarily challenging. To solve this constrained problem, this paper intends to develop an intelligent scheduling system from the perspective of users to reduce expenditure of workflow, subject to the deadline and other execution constraints. A new estimation model of the task execution time is designed according to virtual machine settings in real public clouds and execution data from practical workflows. Based on the new model, an adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm is proposed to meet the quality of service and orchestrate tasks. The adaptiveness of the algorithm is embodied in two aspects. First, an adaptive solution construction method is designed that each solution is built with a dynamically changing resource pool, thus the search space of the algorithm is narrowed down and the execution time is decreased. Second, two heuristics with self-adaptive weight are introduced to adaptively meet different deadline settings. Simulating results on four types of workflows show that the proposed approach is effective and competitive.

EE‐hHHSS: Energy‐efficient wireless sensor network with mobile sink strategy using hybrid Harris hawk‐salp swarm optimization algorithm

SummaryWireless sensor network (WSN) includes power‐efficient sensor nodes to convey information to the base station (BS). This network comprises a number of sensor nodes that perform sensing, processing, and wireless communication abilities to monitor a specified sensing field. Therefore, it is necessary to prolong WSN lifetime using energy efficient optimization methods, because the sensor nodes are operated by battery. Also, it is difficult to replace the battery of the nodes located in harsh environments. Thus, energy‐efficient routing is a crucial phenomenon in WSN. In this article, energy‐efficient WSN with mobile sink (MS) strategy is proposed using hybrid Harris hawk and salp swarm (Hybrid HH‐SS) optimization algorithm. In order to achieve energy efficiency, finding an optimal route for MS is a critical task. The MS discovers an optimal path to interconnect with the cluster heads (CHs) by adaptive ant colony optimization (AACO) algorithm. Hence, the proposed hybrid algorithm minimizes the energy consumption (EC), packet loss rate (PLR), and end‐to‐end (E2E) delay and enhances the lifetime of the network. The proposed work is implemented in JAVA platform, and simulation outcomes show that the proposed approach enhances the wireless sensor network performances. Simulation results show enhancement in energy efficiency in terms of network lifetime, packet delivery rate, average throughput, packet loss rate, energy efficiency, and end‐to‐end delay.

Research on Vehicle Routing Planning Based on Adaptive Ant Colony and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Aiming at vehicle routing problem and combining the advantages of ant colony and particle swarm optimization, an intelligent optimization algorithm of adaptive ant colony and particle swarm optimization is proposed. Through the simulation of ant colony and bird swarm intelligence mechanism, the particle swarm algorithm and the ant colony algorithm heuristic strategy are combined, and different search strategies are used in different stages of the algorithm. The adaptive adjustment is adopted, and the feedback information is obtained by dynamic interaction with the environment, thus speeding up the convergence speed, improving the learning ability, avoiding the local optimum, getting the best solution and improving the efficiency. The simulation experiment shows that the algorithm has fast convergence speed, strong optimization ability, and can obtain better optimization results. It has some advantages in solving vehicle routing problem.

Cognition-based hybrid path planning for autonomous underwater vehicle target following

Intelligent path planning is one of the key techniques for autonomous underwater vehicles for the purpose of target detection, environmental survey and so on. In order to realize automatic motion plan, an intelligent cognitive architecture for autonomous underwater vehicle motion planning has been proposed to realize complicated target detection and mobile target following in the disturbance environment. A novel adaptive ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization fusion-based fuzzy rules optimization algorithm has been proposed to generate optimized fuzzy rules. Through this optimization algorithm, the preliminary fuzzy rules can be optimized to realize intelligent motion planning for complicated operation tasks. Experiments of channel following for wall detection and mobile target following in the oceanic environment have verified the validity of path planning method in the implementation of detection and operation tasks.

Comparison of Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization for Image Edge Detection of Leaves Bone Structure

Leaf bone structure has a characteristic that can be used as a reference in digital image processing. One form of digital image processing is image edge detection. Edge detection is the process of extracting edge information from an image. In this research, Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is proposed for edge image detection of leaf bone structure. The Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization method is a modification of Ant Colony Optimization, in which the initial an ant dissemination process is no longer random, but it is done by a pixel placement process that allows for an edge based on the value of the image gradient. As a comparison also performed edge detection using Robert and Sobel method. Based on the experiments performed, Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is capable of producing more detailed image edge detection and has thicker borders than others. Keywords: edge detection, ant colony optimization, robert, sobel

Decision Support for Project Rescheduling to Reduce Software Development Delays based on Ant Colony Optimization

Delays often occur during some activities in software development projects. Without handling of project delays effectively, many software development projects fail to meet their deadlines. If extra employees with same or similar skills and domain knowledge can be rescheduled for the remaining activities of the delayed projects, it can be possible to reduce or even eliminate existing delays in concurrent software development projects of similar nature. However, it is evident that employee rescheduling may result in delaying other activities, which may lead to the problem of delay propagation. Hence, it is important to investigate how to reduce or even eliminate the delay in one project without impacting other projects. By nature this is an NP-hard problem. Therefore, we propose a novel generic rescheduling strategy based on adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm to provide decision support for software project managers to select appropriate employees to deal with project delays. We have carried out a set of comprehensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed strategy. In addition, three real world software project instances are also utilized to evaluate our strategy. The results show that our strategy is effective, efficient and able to outperform its representative counterparts significantly.

FAACOSE: A Fast Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for Detecting SNP Epistasis

The epistasis is prevalent in the SNP interactions. Some of the existing methods are focused on constructing models for two SNPs. Other methods only find the SNPs in consideration of one-objective function. In this paper, we present a unified fast framework integrating adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm with multiobjective functions for detecting SNP epistasis in GWAS datasets. We compared our method with other existing methods using synthetic datasets and applied the proposed method to Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease dataset. Our experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other methods in epistasis detection, and the result of real dataset contributes to the research of mechanism underlying the disease.

An adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm for constructing cognitive diagnosis tests

A critical issue in the applications of cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) is how to construct a feasible test that achieves the optimal statistical performance for a given purpose. As it is hard to mathematically formulate the statistical performance of a CDM test based on the items used, exact algorithms are inapplicable to the problem. Existing test construction heuristics, however, suffer from either limited applicability or slow convergence. In order to efficiently approximate the optimal CDM test for different construction purposes, this paper proposes a novel test construction method based on ant colony optimization (ACO-TC). This method guides the test construction procedure with pheromone that represents previous construction experience and heuristic information that combines different item discrimination indices. Each test constructed is evaluated through simulation to ensure convergence towards the actual optimum. To further improve the search efficiency, an adaptation strategy is developed, which adjusts the design of heuristic information automatically according to the problem instance and the search stage. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method is validated through a series of experiments with different conditions. Results show that compared with traditional test construction methods of CDMs, the proposed ACO-TC method can find a test with better statistical performance at a faster speed.

Multi satellites scheduling algorithm based on task merging mechanism

Earth observation satellites are platforms equipped with optical instruments that orbit the earth to take photographs of specific areas at users’ requests. Compared with huge user requests, satellites are still scanty resources. For some task, the satellite has to roll its camera to take the desired image. However, many satellites are rigidly restricted on maneuverability. As a result, the performances of satellites are greatly confined. Therefore, we need a scientific observation plan to weaken the constraints arising from satellites’ poor slew ability. To solve the problem we present a multi satellites scheduling algorithm based on task merging mechanism. The algorithm partitions the problem into two sub-problems: task assignment and task merging. In task assignment, we propose an adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm to select specific time window for each task, creating a task list for each satellite. In task merging, we propose the concept of task combination and develop a dynamic programming algorithm to find the best merging plan for each satellite. The two sub-problems are logically coupled; a valid observation plan will be got after much iteration. Finally, a series of test examples are given out, which demonstrate our algorithm to be effective.

Investigation and Analysis on Evacuation Behavior of Large Scale Population in Campus

The field investigation on the crowd evacuation behavior of young people is carried out in Northeastern University of Shenyang under time pressure, such as the class break at 9:55-10:05am and the lunchtime at 11:55-12:15am.The database of pedestrian walking velocity of different behavior characteristics is established and the large scale crowd evacuation behavior characteristics are analyzed. Based on the application of the Self-adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm, the large scale evacuation path is optimized to the whole scale. Based on the academic pedestrian flow investigation and the route optimization analysis, the large scale evacuation behavior in campus is simulated and compared by FDS+Evac. The analysis results show that the personnel flow coefficient will be increasing under time pressure, and the crowding will be produced easier as the same reason. Large scale evacuation plan can be optimized based on the Self- adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm, which can not only reduce the Real Safety Evacuation Time (RSET) on the whole scale, it can also effectively alleviate the congestion of the crowd in the main exit of evacuation route.

Binary Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization in Reactive Power Optimization

This article proposed an Adaptive Binary Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm, which is based on the dual network diagram, designed to state transition rules and information update rules, and then according to the algorithm processes adjust information volatilizing factor dynamically, Verify the validity and superiority of the algorithm.

A Maturity-Based Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

In this paper, for the problems of low convergence rate and getting trapped in local optima easily, the average path similarity (APS) was proposed to present the optimization maturity by analyzing the relationship between parameters of local pheromone updating and global pheromone updating, as well as the optimizing capacity and convergence rate. Furthermore, the coefficients of pheromone updating adaptively were adjusted to improve the convergence rate and prevent the algorithm from getting stuck in local optima. The adaptive ACS has been applied to optimize several benchmark TSP instances. The solution quality and convergence rate of the algorithm were compared comprehensively with conventional ACS to verify the validity and the effectiveness.

Earth Observation Satellites Scheduling Based on Decomposition Optimization Algorithm

Abstract —A decomposition-based optimization algorithm was proposed for solving Earth Observation Satellites scheduling problem. The problem was decomposed into task assignment main problem and single satellite scheduling sub-problem. In task assignment phase, the tasks were allocated to the satellites, and each satellite would schedule the task respectively in single satellite scheduling phase. We adopted an adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm to search the optimal task assignment scheme. Adaptive parameter adjusting strategy and pheromone trail smoothing strategy were introduced to balance the exploration and the exploitation of search process. A heuristic algorithm and a very fast simulated annealing algorithm were proposed to solve the single satellite scheduling problem. The task assignment scheme was valued by integrating the observation scheduling result of multiple satellites. The result was responded to the ant colony optimization algorithm, which can guide the search process of ant colony optimization. Computation results showed that the approach was effective to the satellites observation scheduling problem.

Assembly Sequence Planning Utilizing Chaotic Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

The chaotic adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm (CAACO) is proposed to seek the optimal or near-optimal assembly sequences of mechanical products. Different from the general AACO algorithm, the parameter denoting the global evaporation rate of the AACO algorithm is not specified by the designers, but is generated with the chaotic operators in the optimization process. An example is used to validate the capability of the CAACO algorithm, and the results show that the robustness of the CAACO algorithm is enhanced and more ants in the ant colony can find their own optimal or near-optimal assembly sequences than those of the general AACO algorithm.