Pheromone Update Research Articles

A multi-factor intelligent biologic search algorithm for closed-area fiber optic network planning

Fiber optic network planning is a critical aspect in numerous intelligent park construction projects. This study addresses the issue of fiber routing allocation within these enclosed parks, which necessitate substantial real-time communication during their operation. To optimize route allocation efficiency and account for line costs, we propose a Multi-factor Intelligent Biologic Search Algorithm (MIBSA). This algorithm operates within a hierarchical framework and progresses through three stages of enhancement. The foundational model utilizes an enhanced Lifelong Planning A* (LPA*) algorithm to delineate the initial path and non-uniformly allocate the primary pheromone of the ant colony algorithm. The upper tier integrates an improved Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) model, incorporating various factors into the pheromone update strategy for multi-objective fiber optic network planning. Simultaneously, this algorithm introduces a batch pheromone boosting mechanism and a momentum method to expedite the convergence process. Experimental findings highlight that MIBSA surpasses the conventional ACO method in solving fiber optic network planning problems, yielding an average comprehensive cost reduction of 16.42% and 7.82% under the environmental map of the objective problem and the general environmental map test, respectively.

UAV path planning based on a dual-strategy ant colony optimization algorithm

With the rapid development of modern communication and automatic control technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have increasingly gained importance in both military and civilian domains. Path planning, a critical aspect for achieving autonomous aerial navigation, has consistently been a focal point in UAV research. However, traditional ant colony algorithms need to be improved for the drawbacks of susceptibility to local optima and weak convergence capabilities. Consequently, a novel path planning methodology is proposed based on a dual-strategy ant colony algorithm. In detail, an improved state transition probability rule is introduced, redefining ant movement rules by integrating the state transition strategy of deterministic selection during the iterative process. Additionally, heuristic information on adjacent node distance and mountain height is added to further improve the search efficiency of the algorithm. Then, a new dynamically adjusted pheromone update strategy is proposed. The update strategy is continuously adjusted during the iteration process, which is beneficial to the algorithm’s global search in the early stage and accelerated convergence in the later stage, preventing the algorithm from falling into local optimality and improving its convergence. Based on the above improvements, a new variation of ant colony optimization (ACO) called dual-strategy ACO algorithm is formed. Experimental results prove that dual-strategy ACO has superior global search capabilities and convergence characteristics from four key aspects: path length, fitness values, iteration number, and running time.

Optimization of Green Vehicle Paths Considering the Impact of Carbon Emissions: A Case Study of Municipal Solid Waste Collection and Transportation

In recent years, the waste produced as a result of the production and consumption activities of urban residents has led to significant environmental degradation and resource wastage. This paper focuses on the research object of municipal solid waste (MSW) collection and transportation based on the concept of “sustainable development and green economy”. Firstly, this study examines the current state of urban domestic garbage collection and transportation. It analyzes the following challenges and deficiencies of the existing collection and transportation system: (1) the operating efficiency of garbage collection vehicles is low, resulting in a significant accumulation of waste on the roadside and within the community; (2) the vehicle collection and transportation routes are fixed, and there are empty vehicles running; (3) the amount of garbage on a route exceeds the vehicle’s loading capacity, which requires the vehicle to perform a second round of collection and transportation. To enhance the efficiency of urban garbage collection and transportation and minimize the collection and transportation costs, we are investigating the problem of optimizing the path for green vehicles. To comprehensively optimize the fixed cost, variable cost, and carbon emission cost incurred during vehicle operation, a vehicle routing model with time windows is established, taking into account vehicle load constraints. Carbon emission coefficient and carbon tax parameters are introduced into the model and the “fuel-carbon emission” conversion method is used to measure the carbon cost of enterprises. An improved ant colony optimization (ACO) method is proposed: (1) the introduction of a vehicle load factor improves the ant state transfer method; (2) the updated pheromone method is improved, and additional pheromone is added to both the feasible path and the path with the minimum objective function; (3) the max–min ACO algorithm is introduced to address the issue of premature convergence of the algorithm; (4) the embedding of a 2-opt algorithm further prevents the ACO algorithm from falling into the local optimum. Finally, the calculation results based on the example data demonstrate that the algorithm has a significant advantage over the genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The total transportation distance determined by this algorithm is shorter than that of the GA and PSO methods, and the total cost of the scheme is 1.66% and 1.89% lower than that determined by GA and PSO, respectively. Compared to the data from the actual case, the number of vehicles required in the operation of this algorithm and model is reduced by three. Additionally, the total cost, fixed cost, and carbon emission cost incurred by the vehicles during operation were reduced by 31.2%, 60%, and 25.3% respectively. The results of this study help the station to collect and distribute waste efficiently, while also achieving the goals of energy saving, consumption reduction, and emission reduction.

A Multiple Agile Satellite Staring Observation Mission Planning Method for Dense Regions

To fully harness the burgeoning array of in-orbit satellite resources and augment the efficacy of dynamic surveillance of densely clustered terrestrial targets, this paper delineates the following methodologies. Initially, we leverage the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) clustering algorithm to aggregate the concentrated terrestrial targets, taking into account the field-of-view peculiarities of agile staring satellites. Subsequently, we architect a model for a synergistic multiple angle earth observation satellites (AEOSs) mission planning with the optimization objectives of observational revenue, minimal energy expenditure, and load balancing, factoring in constraints such as target visibility time window, AEOSs maneuverability, and satellite storage. To tackle this predicament, we propose an improved heuristic ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, utilizing the task interval, task priority, and the length of time a task can start observation as heuristic information. Furthermore, we incorporate the notion of the max–min ant system to regulate the magnitude of pheromone concentration, and we amalgamate global and local pheromone update strategies to expedite the convergence rate of the algorithm. We also introduce the Lévy flight improved pheromone evaporation coefficient to bolster the algorithm’s capacity to evade local optima. Ultimately, through a series of simulation experiments, we substantiate the significant performance improvements achieved by the improved heuristic ant colony algorithm compared to the standard ant colony algorithm. We furnish proof of its efficacy in resolving the planning of multiple AEOS staring observation missions.

A Hybrid Algorithm Based on Multi-colony Ant Optimization and Lin-Kernighan for solving the Traveling Salesman Problem

In this article, a hybrid heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). This algorithm combines two main metaheuristics: optimization of multi-colony ant colonies (MACO) and Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun (LKH). The proposed hybrid approach (MACO-LKH) is a so-called insertion and relay hybridization. It brings two major innovations: The first consists in replacing the static visibility function used in the MACO heuristic by the dynamic visibility function used in LKH. This has the consequence of avoiding long paths and favoring the choice of the shortest paths more quickly. Hence the term insertion hybridization. The second innovation consists in modifying the pheromone update strategy of MACO by that of the dynamic λ-opt mechanisms of LKH in order to optimize the solutions generated and save in execution time, hence the relay hybridization. The significance of the hybridization, is examined and validated on benchmark instances including small, medium, and large instance problems taken from the TSPlib library. The results are compared to four other state-of-the-art metaheuristic approaches. It results in that they are significantly outperformed by the proposed algorithm in terms of the quality of solutions obtained and execution time.

An Adaptive Ant Colony Optimization for Solving Large-Scale Traveling Salesman Problem

The ant colony algorithm faces dimensional catastrophe problems when solving the large-scale traveling salesman problem, which leads to unsatisfactory solution quality and convergence speed. To solve this problem, an adaptive ant colony optimization for large-scale traveling salesman problem (AACO-LST) is proposed. First, AACO-LST improves the state transfer rule to make it adaptively adjust with the population evolution, thus accelerating its convergence speed; then, the 2-opt operator is used to locally optimize the part of better ant paths to further optimize the solution quality of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the constructed adaptive pheromone update rules can significantly improve the search efficiency and prevent the algorithm from falling into local optimal solutions or premature stagnation. The simulation based on 45 traveling salesman problem instances shows that AACO-LST improves the solution quality by 79% compared to the ant colony system (ACS), and in comparison with other algorithms, the PE of AACO-LST is not more than 1% and the Err is not more than 2%, which indicates that AACO-LST can find high-quality solutions with high stability. Finally, the convergence speed of the proposed algorithm was tested. The data shows that the average convergence speed of AACO-LST is more than twice that of the comparison algorithm. The relevant code can be found on our project homepage.

A novel travel route planning method based on an ant colony optimization algorithm

Abstract As people’s living standards improve, tourism has become an important way for people to spend their time on leisure and entertainment. The growing number of tourists in recent years has given rise to the creation of tourism-related ancillary services. Travelers need to choose a travel route that suits their needs and expectations and do it in a way that does not cause a waste of time, whether it is an emerging self-driving tour or a traditional tour group. Therefore, the optimization of tourist routes is of great significance to the majority of tourists. Given the planning requirements of tourist attractions in the post-epidemic era, an ant colony-based optimization algorithm is proposed to resolve the planning problem of optimal tourist routes. An optimized pheromone update strategy is also proposed based on the basic ant colony optimization algorithm. The optimized ant colony algorithm tries to balance two conflicting concepts, namely, flows into tourist attractions and the carrying capacity of destinations. To analyze the performance of the proposed optimization algorithm, the effects of different optimization algorithms on the route planning of tourist attractions were compared in the experiment, and the acceleration ratio of the optimized ant colony algorithm was tested using the graphics processing unit parallel computing program. The results show that the proposed algorithm provides certain advantages and has certain potential in parallel computing. To sum up, this study provides a better scientific basis for optimal tourist route planning and has a good reference value.

Smoke simulation and emergency evacuation simulation under indoor fire scenario

According to relevant data, when a fire occurs in a large public building, human life and property will be greatly threatened. In order to solve the problem of personnel evacuation under fire conditions, this paper starts with ant colony algorithm and introduces heuristic function, node selection strategy, and pheromone update to improve ant colony algorithm, so as to provide a scientific basis for personnel evacuation after fire. Based on BIM technology, smoke simulation technology, and evacuation simulation technology, this paper studies the evacuation of people in fire scenarios. Simulation of fire smoke and personnel evacuation is carried out on the BIM model of the shopping mall. Using Pyrosim software to simulate the spread of smoke in the shopping mall after the fire, the smoke temperature, fire visibility and CO concentration of each node are obtained.

Dynamic Route Optimization for Chinese E-Commerce Logistics Based on Ant Colony Algorithm

Abstract The limited nature of logistics and distribution vehicles and the variability of customer acceptance service time limit the service efficiency and quality of logistics and distribution. To optimize a logistics distribution path under capacity and time window constraints, a mathematical model of the problem is first developed in this study, with the lowest cost as the model’s objective function. The logistics distribution issue with soft time windows is then addressed using an ant colony algorithm, and a logistics path optimization strategy based on the maximum minimal ant colony system is suggested. Then, the heuristic function is rebuilt to improve the ant colony algorithm’s solution speed, and the pheromone update approach is included. Finally, experimental approaches are used to test the model’s and optimization algorithm’s efficacy for customer sizes of 30, 50, and 100. The experimental results show that the optimized ant colony algorithm has the best value of 2 for α and 3 for β, which can converge earlier. The improved ant colony algorithm also finds the best solution faster than the conventional ant colony method in just 23 rounds. In the mathematical model of the logistics distribution path optimization issue, this study suggests that the optimized ant colony method has the optimization algorithm’s rationality, efficacy, and stability.

Research on Optimization Algorithm of Single-block Train Formation Plan of Technical Station

The optimization of train formation plan is a large-scale combinatorial optimization problem, which is difficult to solve. This paper mainly studies the optimization algorithm of the single-block train formation plan. The corresponding mathematical model is established by consulting relevant literature, and a positive feedback search algorithm based on absolute conditions is proposed. First of all, the wagon flow that meets the absolute conditions directly runs through train flow without making other choices. For the wagon flow that does not meet the absolute conditions, select the target station to reach directly according to the probability. The probability of wagon flow selecting a station is calculated according to the pheromone of the wagon flow at the station. At the same time, a pheromone update strategy with positive feedback mechanism is proposed to make the search process converge. Finally, the feasibility of the algorithm and the necessity of introducing absolute conditions into the algorithm are verified by taking eight technical stations in the linear direction of the road network as examples.

Location and path planning for urban emergency rescue by a hybrid clustering and ant colony algorithm approach

Rescue station setup and rescue path planning are two important tasks in urban emergency rescue. The former task ensures rescue response capability and the latter task provides effective rescue solutions. When emergencies occur in cities, evacuees are distributed along the urban road network. Rescue resources refer to rescue vehicles whose available number and capacity are both limited. With the constraints of rescue resources and the number of rescues, this paper aims to simultaneously optimize the tasks of rescue station setup and rescue path planning. In the addressed scenario, the priority of each evacuee is quantified as a weight value that is used as the main optimization objective. To solve the problem, a comprehensive urban emergency rescue planning approach is proposed. The proposed approach consists of components of road network processing, road network weight calculation, rescue station setup and rescue path planning. For the setup of rescue stations, this paper employs a clustering method to provide a set of high-quality candidate rescue stations for subsequent path planning based on the locations of evacuees and the road network structure. For rescue path planning, an improved ant colony optimization algorithm is developed. The proposed method is called the planning algorithm with clustering and improved ant colony optimization (PA-C-IACO). The proposed PA-C-IACO redefines the degree of heuristic and pheromone concentration increments for transfer between intersections in the ant colony algorithm and incorporates a reward mechanism during the pheromone update process. Experimental results on six different size datasets show that PA-C-IACO outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms and shows good robustness and feasibility.

Adaptation of the Ant Colony Algorithm to Avoid Congestion in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks have recently presented a promising environment for many researchers to develop large-scale wireless communication. Traffic in WMNs often suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic load’s saturation of certain routes. Therefore, this article proposes an efficient approach for congestion awareness and load balancing in WMNs, based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) approach. The proposed approach aims to raise the performance of the WMN by distributing the traffic load between optimal routes and avoiding severe traffic congestion. The proposed approach relies on three basic mechanisms: detection of severe congestion within the ideal paths used for data transmission, creation of ideal secondary paths with updated pheromone values, and distribution of the traffic load (data packet flow) between the primary and secondary ideal paths. According to the results of the NS2 simulator, the suggested approach increased the WMN throughput by 14.8% when compared to the CACO approach and by 37% when employing the WCETT approach. The results also showed that the proposed approach achieved an average end-to-end delay closing of 0.0562, while WCETT and CACO approaches achieved an average end-to-end delay close to 0.1021 and 0.0976, respectively. The results indicated that the proposed approach achieved a lower percentage of dropped packets by 6.97% and 0.99% compared to the WCETT and CACO approaches. Thus, the proposed approach is effective in improving the performance of WMNs.

Mobile robot path planning based on hybrid ant colony optimization

To solve the problems of the ant colony optimization (ACO), such as slow convergence speed, easy to fall into local extremum and deadlock in path planning, this paper proposed an improved ACO, which was hybridized by PSO based on logistic chaotic mapping, called hybrid ant colony optimization (HACO). According to the number of obstacles around the next feasible node, HACO distributes the initial pheromones unevenly to avoid the ant getting stuck in deadlock. According to the orientation of the next node selected by the ant, the heuristic information is adaptively adjusted to guide the ant to the direction of the target position. When updating the pheromone, the local and global search mechanism of the particle swarm optimization is used to improve the pheromone update rule and accelerate convergence speed. Finally, the grid method is used to construct the environment map, and simulation experiments are conducted in different environments. The experimental results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the improved algorithm.

3D smooth path planning of AUV based on improved ant colony optimization considering heading switching pressure

A smooth and secure spatial path planning algorithm that integrates the improved ant colony optimization with the corrective connected spatial search strategy is proposed, aiming at heavy heading switching pressure of autonomous underwater vehicles sailing in complex marine environment. On the one hand, to overcome the low-dimensional search domain and inaccurate spatial communication information in traditional spatial path planning, the spatial connectivity adjacency domain search strategy is designed based on grid environment model. On the other hand, to alleviate heading switching pressure due to large path steering angles and redundant path turning points, the heuristic functions and pheromone update criterion based on ant colony optimization are introduced to improve the solution quality of smooth paths. The simulation results show that the space search strategy can improve the success probability of safe path planning without reducing the scope of explorable free space. Additionally, the simulations demonstrate that the improved ant colony optimization using the spatial search strategy can guarantee the shortest path with lowest tortuous degree and fewest turning times in the same grid environment.

Multiple fault localization based on ant colony algorithm via genetic operation

Debugging programs involves a considerable amount of time and resources spent on identifying the source of errors. Spectrum-based fault localization techniques are becoming increasingly popular due to their quick and effective performance when dealing with programs that have a single fault. However, these methods do not take into account the reality that most programs tend to have multiple faults. To address the above challenges, we propose an automatic approach using ant colony algorithm via genetic operation for multiple fault localization (ACOMFL). Our approach first constructs the search graph by the coverage information. Secondly, it designs the fitness function to select the best paths and dynamically adjusts the pheromone updating. Finally, it computes the suspiciousness ranking of each statement by the ant path information in the optimal path set. Four open-source benchmarks are utilized to validate the performance of the ACOMFL approach. The experimental results show ACOMFL achieves better results for multi-fault programs in comparison with six spectrum-based fault localization approaches and a genetic algorithm-based multiple fault localization approach. The ACOMFL is effective at locating multi-fault, serving as a helpful method for locating faults.

Robot Path Planning Method Combining Enhanced APF and Improved ACO Algorithm for Power Emergency Maintenance

Considering the limited adaptability of the existing substation inspection robot path planning (PP) algorithms, the authors propose a novel PP method for mobile robots (MR) based on the structure of the ultra-high voltage (UHV) substation inspection robot system. The proposed method combines the improved ant colony optimization (IACO) algorithm and the enhanced artificial potential field (EAPF) algorithm. To minimize the interference of the pheromones, they introduced a pheromone adjustment coefficient in the later iterations of the algorithm. Furthermore, they improved the global pheromone update method, which is beneficial to the MR to search for the optimal path (OP) rapidly. They constructed two environmental models using the grid method, and they used MATLAB to implement comparative experiments between the proposed algorithm and other advanced methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other methods in terms of running time, convergence speed, and global optimization ability.

The Quadruped Robot Uses the Trajectory Planned by DIACO to Complete the Obstacle Avoidance Task

The diffusion-improved ant colony optimization (DIACO) algorithm, as introduced in this paper, addresses the slow convergence speed and poor stability of the ant colony optimization (ACO) in obstacle avoidance path planning for quadruped robots. DIACO employs a nonuniformly distributed initial pheromone, which reduces the blind search time in the early stage. The algorithm updates the heuristic information in the transition probability, which allows ants to better utilize the information from the previous iteration during their path search. Simultaneously, DIACO adjusts the pheromone concentration left by ants on the path based on the map information and diffuses the pheromone within a specific range following the artificial potential field algorithm. In the global pheromone update, DIACO adjusts the pheromone on both the optimal path and the worst path generated by the current iteration, thereby enhancing the probability of ants finding the optimal path in the subsequent iteration. This paper designs a steering gait based on the tort gait to fulfill the obstacle avoidance task of a quadruped robot. The effectiveness of the DIACO algorithm and steering gait is validated through a simulation environment with obstacles constructed in Adams. The simulation results reveal that DIACO demonstrates improved convergence speed and stability compared to ACO, and the quadruped robot effectively completes the obstacle avoidance task using the path planning provided by DIACO in combination with the steering gait.

An Adaptive Ant Colony Algorithm Based on Local Information Entropy to Solve Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems

As a meta-heuristic algorithm, the ant colony algorithm has been successfully used to solve various combinatorial optimization problems. However, the existing algorithm that takes the power of ants to solve distributed constraint optimization problems (ACO_DCOP) is easy to fall into local optima. To deal with this issue, this paper presents an adaptive ant colony algorithm based on local information entropy to solve distributed constraint optimization problems, named LIEAD. In LIEAD, the local information entropy is introduced to help agents adaptively select the pheromone update strategy and value selection strategy, which improves the convergence speed and the quality of the solution. Moreover, a restart mechanism is designed to break the accumulation state of pheromone, which increases the population diversity and helps the algorithm jump out of the local optima. The extensive experimental results indicate that LIEAD can significantly outperform ACO_DCOP and is competitive with the state-of-the-art DCOPs algorithms.

Obstacle Avoidance Path Planning of 7-DOF Redundant Manipulator Based on Improved Ant Colony Optimization

Background: Obstacle avoidance path planning is an important parameter of robot manipulators. Path planning can directly affect the working efficiency of the manipulator. Objective: This study aims to summarize the optimization design method from a large number of literature and propose a new optimization design method to make the planned obstacle avoidance path of the manipulator shorter and smoother. Methods: The forward and inverse kinematics of the redundant manipulator is solved. Secondly, the obstacle and the robot manipulator envelope are simplified for collision detection. Then, the ant colony algorithm is improved by adding an obstacle environment to the construction of the heuristic function and dynamically adjusting the heuristic function factor to make the shortest path distance planned by the algorithm. Finally, the worst ant colony is added to the pheromone update to avoid the algorithm falling into the local optimal solution. Results: Through experiments and comparative studies, the optimized design process shows that the path planned by the improved ant colony algorithm has obvious advantages of shorter path distance and smoother path distance, which verifies the rationality of the improved algorithm. Conclusion: This method optimizes the convergence speed of the ant colony algorithm and avoids the ant colony algorithm from falling into the local optimal solution, which is of great significance for improving the obstacle avoidance path planning problem of a redundant manipulator with a degree of freedom.

Application of Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm Based on Triangle Inequality Principle and Partition Method Strategy in Robot Path Planning

Path planning is an important area of mobile robot research, and the ant colony optimization algorithm is essential for analyzing path planning. However, the current ant colony optimization algorithm applied to the path planning of mobile robots still has some limitations, including early blind search, slow convergence speed, and more turns. To overcome these problems, an improved ant colony optimization algorithm is proposed in this paper. In the improved algorithm, we introduce the idea of triangle inequality and a pseudo-random state transfer strategy to enhance the guidance of target points and improve the search efficiency and quality of the algorithm. In addition, we propose a pheromone update strategy based on the partition method with upper and lower limits on the pheromone concentration. This can not only improve the global search capability and convergence speed of the algorithm but also avoid the premature and stagnation phenomenon of the algorithm during the search. To prevent the ants from getting into a deadlock state, we introduce a backtracking mechanism to enable the ants to explore the solution space better. Finally, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the algorithm is compared with 11 existing methods for solving the robot path planning problem, including several ACO variants and two commonly used algorithms (A* algorithm and Dijkstra algorithm), and the experimental results show that the improved ACO algorithm can plan paths with faster convergence, shorter path lengths, and higher smoothness. Specifically, the algorithm produces the shortest path length with a standard deviation of zero while ensuring the most rapid convergence and the highest smoothness in the case of the shortest path in four different grid environments. These experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in path planning.