Title: Extension of Ant System algorithms with exponential pheromone deposition rule for improved performance

Authors: Ayan Acharya, Aritra Banerjee, Amit Konar, Lakhmi C. Jain

Addresses: Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India. ' Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India. ' Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India. ' School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia, G.P.O. Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia

Abstract: The paper extends the classical Ant System (AS) algorithms by proposing a novel approach of exponential pheromone deposition by artificial ants ensuring a concentration gradient along solution paths. The stability analysis with a deterministic mathematical model based on differential equation yields the proper range of the parameters. A roadmap of connected cities, where the shortest path between a source-destination pair is to be determined, is taken as a problem environment. Exhaustive simulations confirm that the proposed deposition rule, with properly chosen parameter values, outperforms the traditional one with large margin both in terms of solution quality and algorithm convergence.

Keywords: ant colonies; EAS; elitist ant system; rank-based ant systems; MMAS; max-min ant systems; stability analysis; exponential pheromone deposition; solution quality; convergence time; artificial ants; mathematical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDSS.2008.025020

International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.319 - 354

Published online: 09 May 2009 *

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