Swarm Intelligence

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION

Swarm intelligence (SI) involves multiple simple agents interacting with each other and the
environment to solve complex problems through their collective global behavior. This is
inspired by the intelligent behavior seen in swarms of animals such as a colony of ants, flocks of
birds or schools of fish.

It is an artificial intelligence technique based around the study of collective behavior

in decentralized, self-organized, systems. Such systems are typically made up of a population of
simple agents interacting locally with one another and with their environment. Although there is
normally no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local
interactions between such agents often lead to the emergence of global behavior.

It is the discipline that deals with natural and artificial systems composed of many individuals
that coordinate using decentralized control and self-organization. In particular, the discipline
focuses on the collective behaviors that result from the local interactions of the individuals with
each other and with their environment. Examples of systems studied by swarm intelligence are
colonies of ants and termites, schools of fish, flocks of birds, herds of land animals. Some human
artifacts also fall into the domain of swarm intelligence, notably some multi-robot systems, and
also certain computer programs that are written to tackle optimization and data analysis
problems.

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CHAPTER-2

TAXONOMY OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE:

Swarm intelligence has a marked multidisciplinary character since systems with the above
mentioned characteristics can be observed in a variety of domains. Research in swarm
intelligence can be classified according to different criteria.

1. Natural vs. Artificial: It is customary to divide swarm intelligence research into two
areas according to the nature of the systems under analysis. We speak therefore of
natural swarm intelligence research, where biological systems are studied; and of
artificial swarm intelligence, where human artifacts are studied.

2. Scientific vs. Engineering: An alternative and somehow more informative classification

of swarm intelligence research can be given based on the goals that are pursued: we can
identify a scientific and an engineering stream. The goal of the scientific stream is to
model swarm intelligence systems and to single out and understand the mechanisms that
allow a system as a whole to behave in a coordinated way as a result of local individual-
individual and individual-environment interactions. On the other hand, the goal of the
engineering stream is to exploit the understanding developed by the scientific stream in
order to design systems that are able to solve problems of practical relevance.

The two dichotomies natural/artificial and scientific/engineering are orthogonal: although the
typical scientific investigation concerns natural systems and the typical engineering application
concerns the development of an artificial system, a number of swarm intelligence studies have
been performed with swarms of robots for validating mathematical models of biological systems.
These studies are of a merely speculative nature and definitely belong in the scientific stream of
swarm intelligence. On the other hand, one could influence or modify the behavior of the
individuals in a biological swarm so that a new swarm-level behavior emerges that is functional
to the solution of some task of practical interest. In this case, although the system at hand is a

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natural one, the goals pursued are definitely those of an engineering application. In the
following, an example is given for each of the four possible cases:

 Natural/Scientific: Foraging Behavior of Ants

In a now classic experiment, Deneubourg and his group showed that, when given the choice
between two paths of different length joining the nest to a food source, a colony of ants has a
high probability to collectively choose the shorter one. Deneubourg has shown that this behavior
can be explained via a simple probabilistic model in which each ant decides where to go by
taking random decisions based on the intensity of pheromone perceived on the ground, the
pheromone being deposited by the ants while moving from the nest to the food source and back.

 Artificial/Scientific: Clustering by a Swarm of Robots

Several ant species cluster corpses to form cemeteries. In some models, ants pick up and drop
items with probabilities that depend on information on corpse density which is locally available
to the ants. Some scientists have programmed a group of robots to implement a similar clustering
behavior demonstrating in this way one of the first swarm intelligence scientific oriented studies
in which artificial agents were used.

 Natural/Engineering: Exploitation of collective behaviors of animal societies

A possible development of swarm intelligence is the controlled exploitation of the collective

behavior of animal societies. No example is available in this area of swarm intelligence although
some promising research is currently in progress: For example, in the Leurre project, small
insect-like robots are used as lures to influence the behavior of a group of cockroaches. The
technology developed within this project could be applied to various domains including
agriculture and cattle breeding.

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 Artificial/Engineering: Swarm-based Data Analysis

Engineers have used the models of the clustering behavior of ants as an inspiration for designing
data mining algorithms. A seminal work in this direction was undertaken by Lumer and Faieta in
1994. They defined an artificial environment in which artificial ants pick up and drop data items
with probabilities that are governed by the similarities of other data items already present in their
neighborhood. The same algorithm has also been used for solving combinatorial optimization
problems reformulated as clustering problems (Bonabeau et al. 1999).

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CHAPTER-3

FEATURES OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE

SI systems have a number of features:

 Flexibility: The system is constantly updating means it can respond to changes in the
environment.

 Robust: As the solution given is the global response this means the system will still give
the correct response even if individual agents fail.

 Decentralized: There is no hierarchy amongst the agents and central control system.

 Self Organizing: Solutions to a system are emergent rather than predefined.

 Simplicity: Individual agents are typically very simple systems.

These features allow SI systems to handle many problems that are not suitable by traditional
mean. These include problems that are dynamic, non predictable, not defined or computationally
hard.

There may be many other properties of a typical swarm intelligence system:

 It is composed of many individuals;

 The individuals are relatively homogeneous (i.e., they are either all identical or they
belong to a few typologies);
 The interactions among the individuals are based on simple behavioral rules that exploit
only local information that the individuals exchange directly or via the environment.
 The overall behavior of the system results from the interactions of individuals with each
other and with their environment, that is, the group behavior self-organizes.

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The characterizing property of a swarm intelligence system is its ability to act in a coordinated
way without the presence of a coordinator or of an external controller. Many examples can be
observed in nature of swarms that perform some collective behavior without any individual
controlling the group, or being aware of the overall group behavior. Notwithstanding the lack of
individuals in charge of the group, the swarm as a whole can show an intelligent behavior. This
is the result of the interaction of spatially neighboring individuals that act on the basis of simple
rules.
Most often, the behavior of each individual of the swarm is described in probabilistic terms:
Each individual has a stochastic behavior that depends on his local perception of the
neighborhood

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CHAPTER-4

SOME EXAMPLES AND ALGORITHMS OF SWARM

INTELLIGENCE

4.1 Boids:

Boids is an artificial life program, developed by Craig Reyolds in 1986, which simulates

the flocking behaviour of birds. His paper on this topic was published in 1987 in the proceedings
of the ACM SIGGRAPH conference. The name refers to a "bird-like object", but its
pronunciation evokes that of "bird" in a stereotypical New York accent.

As with most artificial life simulations, Boids is an example of emergent behavior; that is, the
complexity of Boids arises from the interaction of individual agents (the boids, in this case)
adhering to a set of simple rules. The rules applied in the simplest Boids world are as follows:

4.1.1 Separation: Steer to avoid crowding local flock mates

Separation

4.1.2 Alignment: Steer towards the average heading of local flock mates

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Alignment

4.1.3 Cohesion: Steer to move toward the average position (center of mass) of local flock
mates

Cohesion

More complex rules can be added, such as obstacle avoidance and goal seeking.

The movement of Boids can be characterized as either chaotic (splitting groups and wild
behavior) or orderly. Unexpected behaviors, such as splitting flocks and reuniting after avoiding
obstacles, can be considered emergent.

The boids framework is often used in computer graphics, providing realistic-looking

representations of flocks of birds and other creatures, such as schools of fish or herds of animals.
It was for instance used in the 1998 video game Half-Life for the flying bird-like creatures seen
at the end of the game on Xen, named "boid" in the game files.

4.2 Ant Colony Optimization

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4.2.1 Introduction

ACO replicate the natural behavior of ants. Ants will randomly spread out and search for food.
When food is discovered an ant will return to its base leaving a pheromone trail. The ACO
algorithm finds optimal solutions because shorter paths are traveled over faster and hence more
often quickly leading to strong pheromone trails. Introducing new ants randomly over time
allows responses to dynamic changes in the environment. ACO is typically used to find an
optimal path.

Ant colony optimization (Dorigo, Maniezzo and Colorni 1991; Dorigo and Stützle 2004) is a
population-based metaheuristic that can be used to find approximate solutions to difficult
optimization problems.

In ant colony optimization (ACO), a set of software agents called "artificial ants" search for good
solutions to a given optimization problem transformed into the problem of finding the minimum
cost path on a weighted graph. The artificial ants incrementally build solutions by moving on the
graph. The solution construction process is stochastic and is biased by a pheromone model, that
is, a set of parameters associated with graph components (either nodes or edges) the values of
which are modified at runtime by the ants. ACO has been applied successfully to many classical
combinatorial optimization problems, as well as to discrete optimization problems that have
stochastic and/or dynamic components.

4.2.2 Details of ACO

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In the natural world, ants (initially) wander randomly, and upon finding food return to their
colony while laying down pheromone trails. If other ants find such a path, they are likely not to
keep travelling at random, but to instead follow the trail, returning and reinforcing it if they
eventually find food.

Over time, however, the pheromone trail starts to evaporate, thus reducing its attractive strength.
The more time it takes for an ant to travel down the path and back again, the more time the
pheromones have to evaporate. A short path, by comparison, gets marched over faster, and thus
the pheromone density remains high as it is laid on the path as fast as it can evaporate.
Pheromone evaporation has also the advantage of avoiding the convergence to a locally optimal
solution. If there were no evaporation at all, the paths chosen by the first ants would tend to be
excessively attractive to the following ones. In that case, the exploration of the solution space
would be constrained.

Thus, when one ant finds a good (i.e., short) path from the colony to a food source, other ants are
more likely to follow that path, and positive feedback eventually leads all the ants following a
single path. The idea of the ant colony algorithm is to mimic this behavior with "simulated ants"
walking around the graph representing the problem to solve.

The original idea comes from observing the exploitation of food resources among ants, in which
ants’ individually limited cognitive abilities have collectively been able to find the shortest path
between a food source and the nest.

 The first ant finds the food source (F), via any way (a), then returns to the nest (N),
leaving behind a trail pheromone (b)
 Ants indiscriminately follow four possible ways, but the strengthening of the runway
makes it more attractive as the shortest route.
 Ants take the shortest route, long portions of other ways lose their trail pheromones.

In a series of experiments on a colony of ants with a choice between two unequal length paths
leading to a source of food, biologists have observed that ants tended to use the shortest route. A
model explaining this behaviour is as follows:

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1. An ant (called "blitz") runs more or less at random around the colony;
2. If it discovers a food source, it returns more or less directly to the nest, leaving in its path
a trail of pheromone;
3. These pheromones are attractive, nearby ants will be inclined to follow, more or less
directly, the track;
4. Returning to the colony, these ants will strengthen the route;
5. If there are two routes to reach the same food source then, in a given amount of time, the
shorter one will be traveled by more ants than the long route;
6. The short route will be increasingly enhanced, and therefore become more attractive;
7. The long route will eventually disappear because pheromones are volatile;
8. Eventually, all the ants have determined and therefore "chosen" the shortest route.

Ants use the environment as a medium of communication. They exchange information indirectly
by depositing pheromones, all detailing the status of their "work". The information exchanged
has a local scope, only an ant located where the pheromones were left has a notion of them. This
system is called "Stigmergy" and occurs in many social animal societies (it has been studied in
the case of the construction of pillars in the nests of termites). The mechanism to solve a problem
too complex to be addressed by single ants is a good example of a self-organized system. This
system is based on positive feedback (the deposit of pheromone attracts other ants that will
strengthen it themselves) and negative (dissipation of the route by evaporation prevents the
system from thrashing). Theoretically, if the quantity of pheromone remained the same over time
on all edges, no route would be chosen. However, because of feedback, a slight variation on an
edge will be amplified and thus allow the choice of an edge. The algorithm will move from an
unstable state in which no edge is stronger than another, to a stable state where the route is
composed of the strongest edges.

The basic philosophy of the algorithm involves the movement of a colony of ants through the
different states of the problem influenced by two local decision policies, viz., trails and
attractiveness. Thereby, each such ant incrementally constructs a solution to the problem. When
an ant completes a solution, or during the construction phase, the ant evaluates the solution and
modifies the trail value on the components used in its solution. This pheromone information will
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direct the search of the future ants. Furthermore, the algorithm also includes two more
mechanisms, viz., trail evaporation and daemon actions. Trail evaporation reduces all trail
values over time thereby avoiding any possibilities of getting stuck in local optima.
The daemon actions are used to bias the search process from a non-local perspective.

4.2.3 Applications

Ant colony optimization algorithms have been applied to many combinatorial optimization
problems and a lot of derived methods have been adapted to dynamic problems in real variables,
stochastic problems, multi-targets and parallel implementations. It has also been used to produce
near-optimal solutions to the travelling salesman problem. They have an advantage
over simulated annealing and genetic algorithm approaches of similar problems when the graph
may change dynamically; the ant colony algorithm can be run continuously and adapt to changes
in real time. This is of interest in network routing and urban transportation systems.

produce near-optimal solutions to the travelling salesman problem. The first ACO algorithm was
called the Ant system and it was aimed to solve the travelling salesman problem, in which the
goal is to find the shortest round-trip to link a series of cities. The general algorithm is relatively
simple and based on a set of ants, each making one of the possible round-trips along the cities. At
each stage, the ant chooses to move from one city to another according to some rules:

1. It must visit each city exactly once;

2. A distant city has less chance of being chosen (the visibility);
3. The more intense the pheromone trail laid out on an edge between two cities, the greater
the probability that that edge will be chosen;
4. Having completed its journey, the ant deposits more pheromones on all edges it
traversed, if the journey is short;
5. After each iteration, trails of pheromones evaporate.

4.2.4 Positive and Negative Feedbacks

Positive Feedback

 Pheromones attract more ants

 Get them to food

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 And make them leave pheromones at their turn

 This enables the creation of stable path

Negative feedback

 Pheromone evaporation ensures that useless path will disappear

 Also ensure that all possible solutions, are explored in any case

4.3 Swarming In Humans

Imagine a park with stone footpaths

 That should discourage you to walk on grass ;-)

 But are traced with absurd geometries

 You will definitely start “cutting the corners”

 This will make the grass signed

 Inviting other people to walk in

 Until a clear spontaneous footpath emerge, and it will be the shortest path

 If a path go to disuse grass will grow again (as in pheromone evaporation)

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4.4 Particle Swarm Intelligence

 Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a computational method that optimizes a problem

by iteratively trying to improve a candidate solution with regard to a given measure of quality.
Such methods are commonly known as metaheuristics as they make few or no assumptions about
the problem being optimized and can search very large spaces of candidate solutions. However,
metaheuristics such as PSO do not guarantee an optimal solution is ever found.

More specifically, PSO does not use the gradient of the problem being optimized, which means
PSO does not require for the optimization problem to be differentiable as is required by classic
optimization methods such as gradient descent and quasi-newton methods. PSO can therefore
also be used on optimization problems that are partially irregular, noisy, change over time, etc.

PSO optimizes a problem by having a population of candidate solutions, here dubbed particles,

and moving these particles around in the search-space according to simple mathematical
formulae. The movements of the particles are guided by the best found positions in the search-
space which are updated as better positions are found by the particles.

A basic variant of the PSO algorithm works by having a population (called a swarm)
of candidate solutions (called particles). These particles are moved around in the search-space
according to a few simple formulae. The movements of the particles are guided by their own best

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known position in the search-space as well as the entire swarm's best known position. When
improved positions are being discovered these will then come to guide the movements of the
swarm. The process is repeated and by doing so it is hoped, but not guaranteed, that a
satisfactory solution will eventually be discovered

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CHAPTER-5

APPLICATIONS OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE

Swarm Intelligence is utilized in the following areas:

 Crowd simulation: Used to predict crowd movement in transportation problems, or to

simulate crowds in movie special effects.

 Crowd control: Used to control the distribution and behaviour of multiple agents over an
area. E.g. collective robotics.

 Path optimization: Used to solve the typical ‘traveling salesman’ problem.

 Complex optimization: Used to solve dynamic, nonlinear complex optimization

problems like scheduling.

 Data Analysis Problem

 Swarm Robotics

Swarm Intelligence-based techniques can be used in a number of applications. The U.S. military
is investigating swarm techniques for controlling unmanned vehicles. The European Space
Agency is thinking about an orbital swarm for self assembly and interferometry. NASA is
investigating the use of swarm technology for planetary mapping. A 1992 paper by M. Anthony
Lewis and George A. Bekey discusses the possibility of using swarm intelligence to control nano
bots within the body for the purpose of killing cancer tumors.

5.1 Crowd simulation

Artists are using swarm technology as a means of creating complex interactive systems
or simulating crowds. Stanley and Stella in: Breaking the Ice was the first movie to make use of

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swarm technology for rendering, realistically depicting the movements of groups of fish and
birds using the Boids system. Tim Burton's Batman Returns also made use of swarm technology
for showing the movements of a group of bats. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy made use of
similar technology, known as Massive, during battle scenes. Swarm technology is particularly
attractive because it is cheap, robust, and simple.

Airlines have used swarm theory to simulate passengers boarding a plane. Southwest Airlines
researcher Douglas A. Lawson used an ant-based computer simulation employing only six
interaction rules to evaluate boarding times using various boarding methods.

5.2 Ant-based routing

The use of Swarm Intelligence in Telecommunication Networks has also been researched, in the
form of Ant Based Routing. This was pioneered separately by Dorigo et al. and Hewlett
Packard in the mid-1990s, with a number of variations since. Basically this uses a probabilistic
routing table rewarding/reinforcing the route successfully traversed by each "ant" (a small
control packet) which flood the network. Reinforcement of the route in the forwards, reverse
direction and both simultaneously have been researched: backwards reinforcement requires a
symmetric network and couples the two directions together; forwards reinforcement rewards a
route before the outcome is known (but then you pay for the cinema before you know how good
the film is). As the system behaves stochastically and is therefore lacking repeatability, there are

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large hurdles to commercial deployment. Mobile media and new technologies have the potential
to change the threshold for collective action due to swarm intelligence (Rheingold: 2002, P175).

Airlines have also used ant-based routing in assigning aircraft arrivals to airport gates. At
Southwest Airlines software program uses swarm theory, or swarm intelligence -- the idea that a
colony of ants works better than one alone. Each pilot acts like an ant searching for the best
airport gate. "The pilot learns from his experience what the best is for him, and it turns out that
that's the best solution for the airline," Dr.Douglas A. Lawson explains. As a result, the "colony"
of pilots always go to gates they can arrive and depart quickly. The program can even alert a
pilot of plane back-ups before they happen. "We can anticipate that it's going to happen, so we'll
have a gate available.”

5.3 Swarm Robotics

Swarm robotics is an approach to robotics that emphasizes many simple robots instead of a

single complex robot. A robot swarm has much in common with an ant colony or swarm of bees.
No individual in the group is very intelligent or complex, but combined, they can perform
difficult tasks. Swarm robotics has been an experimental field, but many practical applications
have been proposed.

A traditional robot often needs complex components and significant computer processing power

to accomplish its assigned tasks. In swarm robotics, each robot is relatively simple and
inexpensive. As a group, these simple machines cooperate to perform advanced tasks that
otherwise would require a more powerful, more expensive robot.

Using many simple robots has other advantages as well. Robot swarms have high fault tolerance,
meaning that they still will perform well if some of the individual units malfunction or are
destroyed. Swarms also are scalable, so the size of the swarm can be increased or decreased as
needed.

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One use that researchers have demonstrated for swarm robotics is mapping. A single robot would
constantly need to keep track of its location, remember where it had been and figure out how to
avoid obstacles while still exploring the entire area. A swarm of robots could be programmed
simply to avoid obstacles while keeping in contact with other members of the swarm. The data
from all of the robots in the swarm is then combined into a single map.

The problems of organizing a swarm haven’t kept people from imagining what swarm robotics
could offer some day. Some scientists envision a swarm of very small micro bots being used to
explore other planets. Other proposed uses include search-and-rescue missions, mining and even
firefighting.

Unlike distributed robotic systems in general, swarm robotics emphasizes a large number of

robots, and promotes scalability, for instance by using only local communication. That local
communication for example can be achieved by wireless transmission systems, like
radio or infrared.

Other applications include:

Optimization problems:

• Computer approximate solutions to problems such as combinatorial problems (e.g. TSP) and
routing (e.g. network routing).

Construction algorithms:

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• Using self-organization and stigmergy to build structures using a set of simple rules.

• Self assembling robots.

Cooperative transport:
• Accomplishing tasks (in this case transport) that require multiple agents cooperating with each
other and without global information.

• Robotic cooperative transport.

CHAPTER-6

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SWARM INTELLIGENCE FRAMEWORK

6.1 Introduction

Swarm intelligence framework is a software development framework. SI Framework is a type of

integrated development environment that makes the development of swarm applications easier
and intuitive. It provides useful tools and modules that make the development of swarm
applications interactive.

Some of the most important applications of swarm application framework are:

1. Makes development of swarm applications easier.

2. Makes their development intuitive.
3. Provides useful tools and modules.

6.2 Architecture

FRAMEWORK

LIBRARY USER

APPLICATION

ENVIRONMENT

There are basically three layers of swarm intelligence framework:

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1. Framework:

This layer lays out the fundamental paradigm for applications in the swarm intelligence
framework.

2. Library:

This layer contains useful objects, tools and everything else.

3. Application:

This layer is where the actual application implementation resides.

6.3 Agents

The compiled result of swarm intelligence framework is called an agent. In this each agent runs
as an independent process. It is mainly composed of two components:

 Rules –Dictates the behavior of agent by sensing and acting.

 Data –Maintains state that the rules may access.

6.4 Rules

These are the parameters that control the agent.

MAINTAIN EDGE

SHAPE FORM CORNER CENTRE ATRRACTION

CIRCLE OF RADIUS
DISTANCE ATTRACT

CHAPTER-7

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LIMITATIONS OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE

There are some limitations of swarm intelligence which are mentioned below:

 Non-optimal – Because swarm systems are highly redundant and have no central control,
they tend to be inefficient. The allocation of resources is not efficient, and duplication of
effort is always rampant. Swarms can dampen inefficiency, but never to the degree that a
linear system can.
 Uncontrollable – It is very difficult to exercise control over a swarm. Swarm systems
require guidance in the way that a shepherd drives a herd: by applying force at crucial
leverage points;
 Unpredictable – The complexity of a swarm system leads to unforeseeable results.
Emergent novelty is a primary characteristic of self-organization by adaptive systems.
Not all novelty is desirable;
 Non-understandable – Sequential systems are understandable; complex adaptive systems,
instead, are a jumble of intersecting logic. Instead of A causing B, which in turn causes
C, A indirectly causes everything, and everything indirectly causes A.
 Non-immediate – Linear systems tend to be very direct: Flip a switch and the light comes
on. Simple collective systems tend to operate simply. But complex swarm systems with
rich hierarchies take time. The more complex the swarm, the longer it takes to shift states.
Each hierarchical layer has to settle down, peripheral players have to come to rest, and a
multitude of autonomous agents need to become acquainted with each other.

CONCLUSION

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Swarm Intelligence (SI) is a computational intelligence technique involving the study of

collective behavior in decentralized systems. Such systems are made up by a population of
simple individuals interacting locally with one another and with their environment. Although
there is typically no centralized control dictating the behavior of the individuals, local
interactions among individuals often cause a global pattern to emerge. Examples of systems like
this can be found in nature, including ant colonies, animal herding, bacteria foraging, bird
flocking, fish schooling, honey bees, and many more.

The features of swarm intelligence:

 Flexibility
 Robust
 Decentralized
 Self Organizing
 Simplicity

Swarm intelligence has a marked multidisciplinary character since systems with the above
mentioned characteristics can be observed in a variety of domains. Research in swarm
intelligence can be classified according to different criteria.
1. Natural
2. Scientific
3. Artificial
4. Engineering

Some models and examples of swarm intelligence are:

1. Boids
2. Ant Colony Optimisation
3. Particle Swarm Intelligence

REFERENCES
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1. www.wikipedia.org
2. http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0910/091-0.4116.pdf
3. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/ion.pdf
4. http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Swarm_Intelligence

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