Foraging in ant colonies applied to the mine detection problem

This paper focuses on the application of swarm intelligence to the problem of mine detection. Swarm intelligence concepts have captured the interest of research mainly in collective robotics, optimization problem and communication network routing (Bonabeau et al., 1999). In the mine detection problem we are faced with subproblems such as searching for mines over the minefield, defusing then effectively and assuring that the field is clear of mines within the least possible time. In this paper, we study the ant colony system applied to the mine detection problem. We highlight a certain formulation that the ants (the agents in our case involved in mine detection) are given for executing the task effectively. Heuristics based on cognitive maps in ants are used to achieve this. The agents do the task effectively when they are able to assure that the minefield is clear of the mines within the least possible time.