http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic swarming Copyright 2006 Matt Mower. Some rights reserved. Squib/0.4.0.348 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002331.html Thu, 24 Aug 2006 08:20:13 +0100 <p>Interesting <a href="http://www.ddj.com/dept/ai/191800178?pgno=1">article from Dr. Dobbs journal</a> about a technique called <em>Ant Colony Optimization</em>. ACO Is an example of how agents with simple behaviours (individual ants know only how to select paths based upon pheromone trails, and how to deposit pheromone along trails they visit) can evolve solutions to complex problems (the problem in the article is that notorious travelling salesman). Individual ants don't communicate directly but co-operate, in a simplified sense, by the use and laying down of pheromone trails. These trails are used to guide selection of routes in the TSP problem. The supplied source code builds easily on MacOSX and turns in a solution within 10% of the optimal solution in under a second.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002331.html