Multi-objective ant colony optimization model for emergency evacuation

Routes planning is one of the most important aspects in emergency evacuation planning. A multi-objective emergency evacuation model using ant colony optimization was proposed for routes planning in complex multi-exit evacuation environment. The two objectives of the model are to minimize the total evacuation time of all evacuees and to minimize the total path crowding degree respectively. A multi-objective ant colony optimization algorithm was presented to solve the proposed model. The results of the study show that the proposed model can make rapid, efficient and reasonable plans for complex evacuation routing problems.