Ant colony optimization for dynamic traveling salesman problems

Abstract

This paper addresses the optimization of a dynamic Traveling Salesman Problem using the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm. Ants are social insects with limited skills that live in colonies able to solve complex problems. The intelligence of the global society arises from self organization mechanisms, based on the indirect communication between individuals through pheromones. The routing problem here presented is a typical case that requires a self organization type of algorithm, in order to cope with the problem dynamics. The simulation results show how the ant colony optimization is able to solve the different possible routing cases.