Next Generation of Algorithms Inspired by Ants 106
letsurock writes "Ants' capability to find the shortest route through a maze in an hour, and to find the second shortest route when the first path was obstructed, has inspired researchers creating algorithms for the future. From the article: 'Finding the most efficient path through a busy network is a common challenge faced by delivery drivers, telephone routers and engineers. To solve these optimization problems using software, computer scientists have often sought inspiration from ant colonies in nature — creating algorithms that simulate the behavior of ants who find the most efficient routes from their nests to food sources by following each other's volatile pheromone trails. The most widely used of these ant-inspired algorithms is known as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO).'"
Oh really? (Score:2, Informative)
I thought it was called Dykstra's algorithm.
Really not new (Score:5, Informative)
Ok guys. I did my Ph D on this subject some years ago. ACO was formalized in 1996 (by Marco Dorigo), and the modeling of ants behavior dates back to 1989 (J.-L. Deneubourg). So really nothing new here.
Ant algorithms are old (Score:3, Informative)
has been done since at least 1992. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization
Re:Oh really? (Score:1, Informative)
I thought it was called Dijkstra's algorithm.
Fixed that for you
I was gonna make another 'old news' comment... (Score:5, Informative)
I have personally done research using ACO, so I was all ready to point out with the rest of the /. mob that this is nothing new... then I actually RTFA.
Not entirely novel, but TFA is not about ACO. It's about using REAL LIVE ANTS to solve Hanoi.
Bad summaries strike again.
Re:Oh really? (Score:4, Informative)
"y" is an old, alternative spelling for the Dutch digraph "ij".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJ_(digraph) [wikipedia.org]
Re:Old news? (Score:5, Informative)
Some may laugh at this technology but sniffing the pheromone trails of frat boys may very well be the shortest path to beer.
Re:Really not new (Score:5, Informative)
TFA says "Provided by University of Sydney."
This wasn't a computer science paper, this is a biology paper bublished a few days ago based on an experiment with actual ants. From the paper's abstract:
Contrary to previous studies, our study shows that mass-recruiting ant species such as the Argentine ant can forage effectively in a dynamic environment. Our results also suggest that novel optimisation algorithms can benefit from stronger biological mimicry.
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/214/1/50 [biologists.org]