ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF ANT BEHAVIOR UNDER CROWDED CONDITIONS

Karsten Peters, Anders Johansson, Audrey Dussutour () and Dirk Helbing
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Karsten Peters: Institute for Transport and Economics, Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Str. 23, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Anders Johansson: Institute for Transport and Economics, Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Str. 23, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Audrey Dussutour: School of Biological Sciences, Heydon Laurence Building A08, The University of Sydney, 2006 New South Wales, Australia
Dirk Helbing: Institute for Transport and Economics, Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Str. 23, 01062 Dresden, Germany;

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2006, vol. 09, issue 04, 337-352

Abstract: Swarm intelligence is widely recognized as a powerful paradigm of self-organized optimization, with numerous examples of successful applications in distributed artificial intelligence. However, the role of physical interactions in the organization of traffic flows in ants under crowded conditions has only been studied very recently. The related results suggest new ways of congestion control and simple algorithms for optimal resource usage based on local interactions and, therefore, decentralized control concepts. Here, we present a mathematical analysis of such concepts for an experiment with two alternative ways with limited capacities between a food source and the nest of an ant colony. Moreover, we carry out microscopic computer simulations for generalized setups, in which ants have more alternatives or the alternative ways are of different lengths. In this way and by variation of interaction parameters, we can get a better idea of how powerful congestion control based on local repulsive interactions may be. Finally, we discuss potential applications of this design principle to routing in traffic or data networks and machine usage in supply systems.

Keywords: Ants; traffic; crowding; congestion control; multi-agent simulation; swarm intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219525906000859

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