Ant Colony Optimization with Global Pheromone Evaluation for Scheduling a Single Machine

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic that has recently been applied to scheduling problems. We propose an ACO algorithm for the Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem and compare it to an existing ACO algorithm for the unweighted problem. The proposed algorithm has some novel properties that are of general interest for ACO optimization. A main novelty is that the ants are guided on their way through the decision space by global pheromone information instead of using only local pheromone information. It is also shown that the ACO optimization behaviour can be improved when priority scheduling heuristics are adapted so that they appropriately reflect absolute quality differences between the alternatives before they are used by the ants. Further improvements can be obtained by identifying situations where the ants can perform optimal decisions.     

Ant colony optimization for resource-constrained project scheduling

An ant colony optimization (ACO) approach for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is presented. Several new features that are interesting for ACO in general are proposed and evaluated. In particular, the use of a combination of two pheromone evaluation methods by the ants to find new solutions, a change of the influence of the heuristic on the decisions of the ants during the run of the algorithm, and the option that an elitist ant forgets the best-found solution are studied. We tested the ACO algorithm on a set of large benchmark problems from the Project Scheduling Library. Compared to several other heuristics for the RCPSP, including genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, and different sampling methods, our algorithm performed best on average. For nearly one-third of all benchmark problems, which were not known to be solved optimally before, the algorithm was able to find new best solutions     

Ant colony optimization with immigrants schemes for the dynamic travelling salesman problem with traffic factors

Traditional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have difficulty in addressing dynamic optimization problems (DOPs). This is because once the algorithm converges to a solution and a dynamic change occurs, it is difficult for the population to adapt to a new environment since high levels of pheromone will be generated to a single trail and force the ants to follow it even after a dynamic change. A good solution to address this problem is to increase the diversity via transferring knowledge from previous environments to the pheromone trails using immigrants schemes. In this paper, an ACO framework for dynamic environments is proposed where different immigrants schemes, including random immigrants, elitism-based immigrants, and memory-based immigrants, are integrated into ACO algorithms for solving DOPs. From this framework, three ACO algorithms, where immigrant ants are generated using the aforementioned immigrants schemes and replace existing ants in the current population, are proposed and investigated. Moreover, two novel types of dynamic travelling salesman problems (DTSPs) with traffic factors, i.e., under random and cyclic dynamic environments, are proposed for the experimental study. The experimental results based on different DTSP test cases show that each proposed algorithm performs well on different environmental cases and that the proposed algorithms outperform several other peer ACO algorithms.     

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.     

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.     

A bio-inspired distributed algorithm to improve scheduling performance of multi-broker grids

The scheduling in grids is known to be a NP-hard problem. The distributed deployment of nodes, their heterogeneity and their fluctuations in terms of workload and availability make the design of an effective scheduling algorithm a very complex issue. The scientific literature has proposed several heuristics able to tackle this kind of optimization problem using techniques and strategies inspired by nature. The algorithms belonging to ant colony optimization (ACO) paradigm represent an example of these techniques: each one of these algorithms uses strategies inspired by the self-organization ability of real ants for building effective grid schedulers. In this paper, the authors propose an on line, non-clairvoyant, distributed scheduling solution for multi-broker grid based on the alienated ant algorithm (AAA), a new ACO inspired technique exploiting a “non natural” behavior of ants and an inverse interpretation of pheromone trails. The paper introduces the proposed algorithm, explains the differences with other classical ACO approaches, and compares AAA with two different algorithms. The results of simulations show that the AAA guarantees good performance in terms of makespan, average queue waiting time and load balancing capability.     

Fast Ant Colony Optimization on Runtime Reconfigurable Processor Arrays

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. As with other metaheuristics, like evolutionary methods, ACO algorithms often show good optimization behavior but are slow when compared to classical heuristics. Hence, there is a need to find fast implementations for ACO algorithms. In order to allow a fast parallel implementation, we propose several changes to a standard form of ACO algorithms. The main new features are the non-generational approach and the use of a threshold based decision function for the ants. We show that the new algorithm has a good optimization behavior and also allows a fast implementation on reconfigurable processor arrays. This is the first implementation of the ACO approach on a reconfigurable architecture. The running time of the algorithm is quasi-linear in the problem size n and the number of ants on a reconfigurable mesh with n ² processors, each provided with only a constant number of memory words.     

On solving permutation scheduling problems with ant colony optimization

A new approach for solving permutation scheduling problems with ant colony optimization (ACO) is proposed in this paper. The approach assumes that no precedence constraints between the jobs have to be fulfilled. It is tested with an ACO algorithm for the single-machine total weighted deviation problem. In the new approach the ants allocate the places in the schedule not sequentially, as in the standard approach, but in random order. This leads to a better utilization of the pheromone information. It is shown by experiments that adequate combinations between the standard approach which can profit from list scheduling heuristics and the new approach perform particularly well.     

奖惩蚁群算法

由于传统蚁群算法所采用的是随机概率搜索策略,收敛速度慢是其主要问题。为了提高算法的收敛速度,这里提出一种带奖惩策略的蚁群算法（PPACO）。新算法中,每次循环中发现的较优解都被挑选出来加以奖励,而普通解则被惩罚,这样就加快了较优路径和普通路径上信息素的差异;另外,为了不使这种差异对算法产生过多的影响,所有路径上的信息素都被限制在一定的范围[τmin,τmax]内,同时,信息素的挥发系数被设为相对较高值。通过典型模拟实验证明,新算法对解决复杂组合优化问题非常有效。     

一种新的求解TSP问题智能蚁群优化算法

提出了一种新的用于求解TSP问题的智能蚁群优化算法。新算法从TSP问题本身出发,提取出了该问题的一种本质特征,并赋予蚁群算法中的精英蚂蚁以识别该固有特征的能力,以提高精英蚂蚁的搜索质量,进而使得新算法整体的求解能力得以提高。文章中不仅阐述了新算法的原理,而且进行了仿真实验,实验结果表明新算法在求解时间和求解质量上都取得了很好的效果。     

Ant colony optimization

Swarm intelligence is a relatively new approach to problem solving that takes inspiration from the social behaviors of insects and of other animals. In particular, ants have inspired a number of methods and techniques among which the most studied and the most successful is the general purpose optimization technique known as ant colony optimization. Ant colony optimization (ACO) takes inspiration from the foraging behavior of some ant species. These ants deposit pheromone on the ground in order to mark some favorable path that should be followed by other members of the colony. Ant colony optimization exploits a similar mechanism for solving optimization problems. 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. The goal of this article is to introduce ant colony optimization and to survey its most notable applications     

基于蚁群算法的离散救援问题出救点选址研究

为解决应急物流中的出救点选址问题,建立了相应数学模型,引入蚁群算法解决问题。多数应急物流可以归为点对点的支援问题,出救点的设置应该在保证出救有效的条件下使出救点最少、救援时间最短,属于双层规划问题。双层规划问题是NP难题,可以应用蚁群算法解决。出救点选址问题在蚁群算法中可以视为蚁群的聚类,通过对信息素衰减及相邻蚂蚁的吸引作为启发因子,可以得到蚁群的聚类效果。实验结果表明,基于蚁群算法的选址问题解决方案能获得理想的选址效果,收敛速度较快。     

一种障碍环境下机器人路径规划的蚁群粒子群算法

针对机器人在障碍环境下寻找最优路径问题, 提出了一种障碍环境下机器人路径规划的蚁群粒子群算法.该方法有效地结合了粒子群算法和蚁群算法的优点, 采用栅格法进行环境建模, 利用粒子群算法的快速简洁等特点得到蚁群算法初始信息素分布, 以减少迭代次数, 加快算法的收敛速度; 同时利用蚁群算法之间的可并行性, 采用分布式技术实现蚂蚁之间的并行搜索, 求解精度高等优点, 求精确解. 仿真实验结果证明了该方法的有效性, 是机器人路径规划的一种较好的方法.     

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.     

A low-complexity hybrid algorithm based on particle swarm and ant colony optimization for large-MIMO detection

With rapid increase in demand for higher data rates, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems are getting increased research attention because of their high capacity achieving capability. However, the practical implementation of MIMO systems rely on the computational complexity incurred in detection of the transmitted information symbols. The minimum bit error rate performance (BER) can be achieved by using maximum likelihood (ML) search based detection, but it is computationally impractical when number of transmit antennas increases. In this paper, we present a low-complexity hybrid algorithm (HA) to solve the symbol vector detection problem in large-MIMO systems. The proposed algorithm is inspired from the two well known bio-inspired optimization algorithms namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, we devise a new probabilistic search approach which combines the distance based search of ants in ACO algorithm and the velocity based search of particles in PSO algorithm. The motivation behind using the hybrid of ACO and PSO is to avoid premature convergence to a local solution and to improve the convergence rate. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the popular minimum mean squared error (MMSE) algorithm and the existing ACO algorithms in terms of BER performance while achieve a near ML performance which makes the algorithm suitable for reliable detection in large-MIMO systems. Furthermore, a faster convergence to achieve a target BER is observed which results in reduction in computational efforts.     

基于子集类蚁群模型的属性相对约简算法

粗糙集属性约简是一个典型的NP-hard问题。提出了一种基于子集类蚁群模型的属性相对约简算法,该算法采用转移概率对每个属性随机搜索,直到获得一个分类能力与决策属性分类能力一致的属性子集。提出的基于信息素变异的蚁群算法,不仅提高了解的质量,而且有效避免了早熟收敛。106组病例数据的实验结果表明,该算法能够发现较好的决策表相对约简与决策规则。     

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.     

A memetic ant colony optimization algorithm for the dynamic travelling salesman problem

Ant colony optimization (ACO) has been successfully applied for combinatorial optimization problems, e.g., the travelling salesman problem (TSP), under stationary environments. In this paper, we consider the dynamic TSP (DTSP), where cities are replaced by new ones during the execution of the algorithm. Under such environments, traditional ACO algorithms face a serious challenge: once they converge, they cannot adapt efficiently to environmental changes. To improve the performance of ACO on the DTSP, we investigate a hybridized ACO with local search (LS), called Memetic ACO (M-ACO) algorithm, which is based on the population-based ACO (P-ACO) framework and an adaptive inver-over operator, to solve the DTSP. Moreover, to address premature convergence, we introduce random immigrants to the population of M-ACO when identical ants are stored. The simulation experiments on a series of dynamic environments generated from a set of benchmark TSP instances show that LS is beneficial for ACO algorithms when applied on the DTSP, since it achieves better performance than other traditional ACO and P-ACO algorithms.     

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.