Title: Social ant colony-inspired modelling approach for rapid response design

Authors: Yishou Wang; Jun Liu; Hongfei Teng

Addresses: School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Abstract: Some unexpected natural or man-made disasters would cause damage to human life and key infrastructural facilities. In this context, we define rapid response design (RRD) as a design methodology for rapidly designing equipment in a changing environment to minimise loss in the disaster. To adapt to the unpredictable requirements, RRD has to incorporate the ability to respond rapidly, be flexible, robust and adaptable. To reach these goals, we present a social ant colony-inspired modelling approach for RRD. This study firstly makes a survey on the social ant colony to find its inherent mechanism used in RRD modelling process. Then, this study focuses on how to make a rapid response design system incorporating the ability to be insensitive to disasters, and to be resilient or reconfigured after breakdown. Finally, we illustrate a rapid response design framework based on multi-agent system that simulates the operation environment of the social ant colony to cope with changing fluctuant conditions. The proposed modelling approach would be expanded to the rapid response processing in the management field.

Keywords: social ant colony; rapid response design; RRD; multi-agent systems; MAS: agent-based systems; swarm intelligence; disaster response; emergency management; disaster management; modelling; disaster relief; natural disasters; equipment design; adaptable design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2013.053427

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2013 Vol.46 No.4, pp.361 - 368

Published online: 29 May 2013 *

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