Study on robot coalition problem based on novel quantum-inspired ant colony algorithm

Robot coalition problem is a complicated combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, a novel quantum ant colony algorithm for the problem is proposed, where the thought of quantum evolution algorithm is combined with ant colony algorithm. In this algorithm, the pheromone is encoded by quantum bits and a new pheromone representation is designed. To avoid the algorithm falling into local optimum, the strategy of quantum crossover is designed to improve the information structure of population. Simulation results show that the algorithm is more effective than quantum genetic algorithm and basic ant colony algorithm.