An Improved Ant Colony System and Its Application

Author

Xiang-pei, Hu ; Qiu-lei, Ding ; Yong-xian, Li ; Dan, Song

Author_Institution

Inst. of Syst. Eng., Dalian Univ. of Technol.

Volume

1

fYear

2006

fDate

Nov. 2006

Firstpage

384

Lastpage

389

Abstract

The ant colony system (ACS) algorithm is vital in solving combinatorial optimization problems. However, the weaknesses of premature convergence and low efficiency greatly restrict its application. In order to improve the performance of the algorithm, the hybrid ant colony system (HACS) is presented by introducing the pheromone adjusting approach, combining ACS with saving and interchange methods, etc. Furthermore, the HACS is applied to solve the vehicle routing problem with time window (VRPTW). By comparing the computational results with the previous findings, it is concluded that HACS is an effective and efficient way to solve combinatorial optimization problems

Keywords

combinatorial mathematics; convergence; optimisation; transportation; ant colony system algorithm; combinatorial optimization problems; hybrid ant colony system; pheromone adjusting approach; premature convergence; time window; vehicle routing problem; Ant colony optimization; Clustering algorithms; Distributed computing; Educational programs; Evolutionary computation; Feedback; Large-scale systems; Routing; Systems engineering and theory; Vehicles; Ant Colony System; Combinatorial Optimization; Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Window;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computational Intelligence and Security, 2006 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Guangzhou

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0605-6

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0605-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCIAS.2006.294159

Filename

4072112