SWARAM ROBOTICS

A Seminar Report

Submitted by

EIRAJ SAQIB
In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

BACHELORS OF ENGINEERING
IN
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

At
SSM college of Engineering & Technology
Department of E&C
Parihaspora Pattan, Baramulla
MARCH 2016

CERTIFICATE
This is to Certify that the seminar report entitled SWARM
ROBOTICS is a bonafide record of the work done by Mr. EIRAJ
SAQIB Roll No. 3065

under our supervision, in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the award of

Degree of Bachelor of

Engineering in Computer Science Engineering

from

SSM College

Of Engineering & Technology for the year 2016 .

Mr.Majid Ashraf

Miss Roohun Nisa

Assistant Professor, Dept of E&C

Assistant Professor, Dept of

E&C
Seminar Co-ordinator

Seminar Guide

Mr. Manzoor Ahmad Mir

Head of Department
Electronics and communication Engineering

Date: _____
Seal)

(Department

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER NO.

TITLE

PAGE

NO.
ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ii
1.

INTRODUCTION
01
SWARM TECHNOLOGY
01

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

02

PROPERTIES OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE

02
MODELLING

OF SWARM BEHAVIOR

02
EXAMPLE ALGORITHMS OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE
04
I.Ant colony optimization
04
II.River Formation Dynamics
07

III.Particle Swarm Optimization

07
IV.Stochastic Diffusion Search
13
V.Gravitational Search Algorithm
14
VI.Intelligence Water Drops
14
VII.Charged System Search
14

APPLICATION OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

15
a. Crowd Simulation
15
b. Ant based Routing
16
c. Clustering behaviour of ants
17
d. Nest building behaviour of wasps and termites
17
e. Flocking and schooling in birds and fishes
f.

18
Ant colony optimization

19
g. Particle swarm optimization
20
h. Swarm based network management
i.

21
Cooperative behaviour in swarm robots
22

ADVANTANGES OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

23

DISADVANTAGES OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

23

CONCLUSION
25

REFRENCES
26

Abstract

Swarm robotics is a field of multi-robotics in which large

numbers of robots are coordinated in a distributed and
decentralized way. It is based on the use of local rules,
and simple robots compared to the complexity of the
task to achieve, and inspired by social insects. Large
number of simple robots can perform complex tasks in a
more efficient way than a single robot, giving robustness
and flexibility to the group. In this article, an overview of
swarm robotics is given, describing its main properties
and characteristics and comparing it to general multirobotic systems. A review of different research works
and experimental results, together with a discussion of
the future swarm robotics in real world applications
completes this work.
Swarm robotics is a new approach to the
coordination of multirobot systems which consist of
large numbers of mostly simple physical robots. It is
supposed that a desired collective behavior emerges
from

the

interactions

between

the robots and

interactions of robots with the environment.

Acknowledgement
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have
been possible without the kind support and help of many
individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of
them.
I am highly indebted to Prof Manzoor Ahmad Mir for their
guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing
necessary information regarding the project & also for their
support in completing the project.
I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents for their
kind

co-operation

and

encouragement

which

help

me

in

completion of this project.

I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to Mr
Majid Ashraf for giving me such opportunity and time to present
my ideas
My thanks and appreciations also go to my classmates in
developing the project and people who have willingly helped me
out with their abilities.

II

INTRODUCTION
ST is the property of a system whereby the collective
behaviors of agents interacting locally with their environment
cause coherent functional global patterns to emerge. SI provides
a basis with which it is possible to explore distributed problem
solving without centralized control or the provision of a global
model. One of the cores tenets of SI work is that often a
decentralized, bottom-up approach to controlling a system is
much more effective than traditional, centralized approach.
Groups performing tasks effectively by using only a small set of
rules for individual behavior is called swarm intelligence. Swarm
Intelligence is a property of systems of no intelligent agents
exhibiting collectively intelligent behavior. In Swarm Intelligence,
two individuals interact indirectly when one of them modifies the
environment and the other responds to the new environment at a
later time. For years scientists have been studying about insects
like ants, bees, termites etc. The most amazing thing about social
insect colonies is that theres no individual in charge. For example
consider the case of ants. But the way social insects form
highways and other amazing structures such as bridges, chains,
nests and can perform complex tasks is very different: they selforganize

through

direct

and

characteristics of social insects are

1. Flexibility
2. Robustness
3. Self-Organization

indirect

interactions.

The

Swarm Technology (ST) is the collective behavior of

decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The
concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The
expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in
1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems.
SI systems are typically made up of a population of simple
agents or boids interacting locally with one another and with their
environment. The agents follow very simple rules, and although
there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual
agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random,
interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of
"intelligent" global behavior, unknown to the individual agents.
Natural examples of SI include ant colonies, bird flocking, animal
herding, bacterial growth, and fish schooling.
1
The application of swarm principles to robots is called
swarm robotics, while 'swarm intelligence' refers to the more
general set of algorithms. 'Swarm prediction' has been used in the
context of forecasting problems.
Swarm describes behavior of an aggregate of animals of
similar size and body orientation, often moving en masse or
migrating in the same direction. Swarming is a general term that
can be applied to any animal that swarms. The term is applied
particularly to insects, but can also be applied to birds, fish,
various microorganisms such as bacteria, and people.
The term flocking is usually used to refer to swarming behavior in
birds, while the terms shoaling or schooling are used to refer to
swarming behavior in fish. The swarm size is a major parameter
of a swarm.

PROPERTIES OF SWARM INTELLIGENCE

The typical swarm intelligence system has the following
properties:

It is composed of many individuals;

The individuals are relatively homogeneous

The interactions among the individuals are based on
simple

behavioural

rules

that

exploit

only

local

information that the individuals exchange directly or via

the environment
The overall behaviour of the system results from the
interactions of individuals with each other and with their
environment, that is, the group behaviour self-organizes.

MODELLING SWARM BEHAVIOUR

The simplest mathematical models of animal swarms
generally represent individual animals as following three rules:
1. Move in the same direction as your neighbour
2. Remain close to your neighbours
3. Avoid collisions with your neighbours

2
Many current models use variations on these rules, often
implementing them by means of concentric "zones" around each
animal. In the zone of repulsion, very close to the animal, the
focal animal will seek to distance itself from its neighbors to
avoid collision. Slightly further away, in the zone of alignment, the
focal animal will seek to align its direction of motion with its
neighbors. In the outermost zone of attraction, which extends as
far away from the focal animal as it is able to sense, the focal
animal will seek to move towards a neighbor?

The shape of these zones will necessarily be affected by the

sensory capabilities of the given animal. For example the visual
field of a bird does not extend behind its body. Fish rely on both
vision and on hydrodynamic perceptions relayed through their
lateral line, while Antarctic krill rely both on vision and
hydrodynamic signals relayed through antennae. Some of the
animals that exhibit swarm behavior are

1. Insects Ants, bees, locusts, termites, mosquitoes and

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

insects migration.
Bacteria
Birds
Land animals
Aquatic animals fish, krill and other aquatic animals
People
3

EXAMPLE

ALGORITHMS

INTELLIGENCE

Ant colony optimization(ACO)

River formation dynamics
Particle swarm optimization(PSO)
Stochastic diffusion search
Gravitational search algorithm(GSA)
Intelligent Water Drops
Charged System Search

OF

SWARM

i.

Ant Colony Optimization

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a class of optimization

algorithms modeled on the actions of an ant colony. ACO methods
are useful in problems that need to find paths to goals. Artificial
'ants'simulation agentslocate optimal solutions by moving
through a parameter space representing all possible solutions.
Real ants lay down pheromones directing each other to resources
while exploring their environment. The simulated 'ants' similarly
record their positions and the quality of their solutions, so that in
later simulation iterations more ants locate better solutions. One
variation on this approach is the bees algorithm, which is more
analogous to the foraging patterns of the honey bee.
In other words we can say that , the ant colony optimization
algorithm

(ACO)

is

probabilistic

technique

for

solving

computational problems which can be reduced to finding good

paths through graphs. In the real world, ants 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 through
that way.
This algorithm is inspired by forgiving behavior of the ants.
1. The first ant finds the food source (F), via any way (a), then
returns to the nest (N), leaving behind a trail pheromone (b)
2. Ants indiscriminately follow four possible ways, but the
strengthening of the runway makes it more attractive as the
shortest route.
3. Ants take the shortest route, long portions of other ways
lose their trail pheromones.
4

Figure i ACO

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 behavior is as follows:
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
3. a trail of pheromone;
4. These pheromones are attractive, nearby ants will be
inclined to follow, more or less
5. directly, the track;
6. Returning to the colony, these ants will strengthen the
route;
7. If there are two routes to reach the same food source
then, in a given amount of time,
8. the shorter one will be travelled by more ants than the
long route;
9. The short route will be increasingly enhanced, and
therefore become more
10. attractive;
11. The long route will eventually disappear because
pheromones are volatile;
12. Eventually, all the ants

have

therefore "chosen" the shortest route.

determined

and

Pseudo code of ACO

1 :

repeat

2 :

if antCount < maxAnts then

3 :

create a new ant

4 :

set initial state

5 :

end if

6 :

for all ants do

7 :

determine

all

feasible

neighbour

states

ant's

visited

{considering the
states}
8 :

if solution found V no feasible neighbour state then

9 :
10:

kill ant
if we use delayed pheromone update then

11:

evaluate solution

12:

deposit pheromone on all used edges

13:

end if

14: else
15:

stochastically
{directed

by

select
the

a
ants

feasible

neighbour

memory,

the

state

pheromone

concentration on the edges and local heuristics}

16:

if we use step-by-step pheromone update then

17:

deposit pheromone on the used edge

18:

end if

19: end if
20: end for
21:

evaporate

pheromone

until

termination

criterion

satisfied

ii.

River Formation Dynamics

River formation dynamics (RFD) is an heuristic method

similar to ant colony optimization (ACO). In fact, RFD can be seen
as a gradient version of ACO, based on copying how water forms
rivers by eroding the ground and depositing sediments. As water
transforms the environment, altitudes of places are dynamically
modified,

and

decreasing

gradients

are

constructed.

The

gradients are followed by subsequent drops to create new

gradients, reinforcing the best ones. By doing so, good solutions
are given in the form of decreasing altitudes. This method has
been applied to solve different NP-complete problems (for
example, the problems of finding a minimum distances tree and
finding a minimum spanning tree in a variable-cost graph). The
gradient orientation of RFD makes it especially suitable for solving
these problems and provides a good tradeoff between finding
good results and not spending much computational time. In fact,
RFD fits particularly well for problems consisting in forming a kind
of covering tree.

iii.

Particle Swarm Optimization

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population based

stochastic optimization technique developed by Dr. Eberhart and
Dr. Kennedy in 1995, inspired by social behavior of bird flocking or
fish schooling. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a global
optimization algorithm for dealing with problems in which a best
solution can be represented as a point or surface in an ndimensional space. Hypotheses are plotted in this space and
seeded with an initial velocity, as well as a communication
channel between the particles. Particles then move through the
solution space, and are evaluated according to some fitness
criterion after each time step. Over time, particles are accelerated
towards those particles within their communication grouping
which have better fitness values. The main advantage of such an
approach over other global minimization strategies such as

simulated annealing is that the large number of members that

make up the particle swarm make the technique impressively
resilient to the problem of local minima.
PSO shares many similarities with evolutionary computation
techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA). The system is
initialized with a population of random solutions and searches for
optima by updating generations. However, unlike GA, PSO has no
evolution operators such as crossover and mutation. In PSO, the
potential solutions, called particles, fly through the problem space
by following the current optimum particles.
7

Ex. Birds flocking

Figure ii PSO

Algorithm of PSO

As stated before, PSO simulates the behaviors of bird

flocking. Suppose the following scenario: a group of birds are
randomly searching food in an area. There is only one piece of
food in the area being searched. All the birds do not know where
the food is. But they know how far the food is in each iteration. So

what's the best strategy to find the food? The effective one is to
follow the bird which is nearest to the food.

PSO learned from the scenario and used it to solve the

optimization problems. In PSO, each single solution is a "bird" in
the search space. We call it "particle". All of particles have fitness
values which are evaluated by the fitness function to be
optimized, and have velocities which direct the flying of the
particles. The particles fly through the problem space by following
the current optimum particles.

PSO is initialized with a group of random particles (solutions) and

then searches for optima by updating generations. In every
iteration, each particle is updated by following two "best" values.
The first one is the best solution (fitness) it has achieved so far.
8

(The fitness value is also stored.) This value is called pbest.

Another "best" value that is tracked by the particle swarm
optimizer is the best value, obtained so far by any particle in the
population. This best value is a global best and called gbest.
When a particle takes part of the population as its topological
neighbors, the best value is a local best and is called lbest.

After finding the two best values, the particle updates its velocity
and positions with following equation (a) and (b).
v[] = v[] + c1 * rand() * (pbest[] - present[]) + c2 * rand() *
(gbest[] - present[])-------(a)
present[]

present[]

v[]

------------------------------------------- (b)
Where:v[]

is the particle velocity,

persent[]

is the current particle (solution).

pbest[] and gbest[]

are defined as stated before. i.e. personal

best and global best respv.

rand ()

is a random number between (0,1).

c1, c2

are learning factors. Usually c1 = c2 = 2.

The pseudo code of the procedure is as follows

For each particle

Initialize particle
END
Do
For each particle
Calculate fitness value
If the fitness value is better than the best
fitness value (pBest) in history
set current value as the new pBest
End

Choose the particle with the best fitness value of

all the particles as the gBest
For each particle
Calculate particle velocity according equation
(a)
Update particle position according equation (b)
End
While maximum iterations or minimum error criteria is
not attained
Particles' velocities on each dimension are clamped to a
maximum velocity Vmax. If the sum of accelerations would cause
the velocity on that dimension to exceed Vmax, which is a
parameter specified by the user. Then the velocity on that
dimension is limited to Vmax.

10

Comparisons Between Genetic Algorithm And PSO

Most of evolutionary techniques have the following procedure:
1. Random generation of an initial population
2. Reckoning of a fitness value for each subject. It will
directly depend on the distance to the optimum.
3. Reproduction of the population based on fitness
values.
4. If requirements are met, then stop. Otherwise go back
to 2.

From the procedure, we can learn that PSO shares many common
points with GA. Both algorithms start with a group of a randomly
generated population, both have fitness values to evaluate the
population. Both update the population and search for the

optimum

with

random

techniques.

Both

systems

do

not

guarantee success.

However, PSO does not have genetic operators like crossover and
mutation. Particles update themselves with the internal velocity.
They also have memory, which is important to the algorithm.

Compared with genetic algorithms (GAs), the information sharing

mechanism in PSO is significantly different. In GAs, chromosomes
share information with each other.
So the whole population moves like a one group towards an
optimal area. In PSO, only gbest (or lbest) gives out the
information to others. It is a one -way information sharing
mechanism. The

evolution only looks for the best solution.

Compared with GA, all the particles tend to converge to the best
solution quickly even in the local version in most cases.

PSO parameter control

From the above case, we can learn that there are two key steps
when applying PSO to optimization problems: the representation
of the solution and the fitness function. One of the advantages of
PSO is that PSO take real numbers as particles. It is not like GA,
which needs to change to binary encoding, or special genetic
operators have to be used. For example, we try to
find the solution for f(x) = x1^2 + x2^2+x3^2, the particle can
be set as (x1, x2, x3), and fitness function is f(x).
11

Then we can use the standard procedure to find the optimum. The
searching is a repeat process, and the stop criteria are that the
maximum iteration number is reached or the minimum error
condition is satisfied.
There are not many parameter need to be tuned in PSO. Here is a
list of the parameters and their typical values.

The number of particles: the typical range is 20 - 40. Actually for

most of the problems 10 particles is large enough to get good
results. For some difficult or special problems, one can try 100 or
200 particles as well.
Dimension of particles: It is determined by the problem to be
optimized,
Range of particles: It is also determined by the problem to be
optimized,

you

can

specify

different

ranges

for

different

dimension of particles.
Vmax: it determines the maximum change one particle can take
during one iteration. Usually we set the range of the particle as
the Vmax for example, the particle (x1, x2, x3)
X1 belongs [-10, 10], then Vmax = 20
Learning factors: c1 and c2 usually equal to 2. However, other
settings were also used in different papers. But usually c1 equals
to c2 and ranges from [0, 4]

The stop condition: the maximum number of iterations the PSO

execute and the minimum error requirement. for example, for
ANN training in previous section, we can set the minimum error
requirement is one mis-classified pattern. the maximum number
of iterations is set to 2000. This stop condition depends on the
problem to be optimized.

Global version vs. local version: we introduced two versions of

PSO. Global and local version. Global version is faster but might
converge to local optimum for some problems. Local version is a
little bit slower but not easy to be trapped into local optimim. One
can use global version to get quick result and use local version to
refine the search.

Another factor is inertia weight, which is introduced by Shi

and Eberhart

12

iv.

Stochastic Diffusion Search

Stochastic

diffusion

search

(SDS)

is

an

agent-based

probabilistic global search and optimization technique best suited

to problems where the objective function can be decomposed into
multiple independent partial-functions. Each agent maintains a
hypothesis which is iteratively tested by evaluating a randomly
selected partial objective function parameterized by the agent's
current hypothesis. In the standard version of SDS such partial
function evaluations are binary, resulting in each agent becoming
active or inactive. Information on hypotheses is diffused across
the

population

stigmergic

via

inter-agent

communication

communicate

hypotheses

communication.

used
via

in

ACO,

in

one-to-one

Unlike
SDS

the

agents

communication

strategy analogous to the tandem running procedure observed in

some species of ant. A positive feedback mechanism ensures
that, over time, a population of agents stabilize around the globalbest solution. SDS is both an efficient and robust search and
optimization

algorithm,

which

has

been

extensively

mathematically described.
Or in simple words we can say that It belongs to a family of
swarm intelligence and naturally inspired search and optimization
algorithms which includes ant colony optimization, particle swarm
optimization and genetic algorithms. It is an agent-based
probabilistic global search and optimization technique best suited
to problems where
the

objective

function

can

be

decomposed

into

multiple

independent partial-functions. Each agent maintains a hypothesis

which is iteratively tested by evaluating a randomly selected

partial objective function parameterized by the agent's current

hypothesis.

13
v.

Gravitational Search Algorithm

Gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is constructed based on the

law of Gravity and the notion of mass interactions. The GSA
algorithm uses the theory of Newtonian physics and its searcher
agents are the collection of masses. In GSA, we have an isolated
system of masses. Using the gravitational force, every mass in
the system can see

the situation of

other masses. The

gravitational force is therefore a way of transferring information

between different masses.

vi.

Intelligent Water Drops

Intelligent Water Drops algorithm (IWD) is a swarm-based

nature-inspired optimization algorithm, which has been inspired
from natural rivers and how they find almost optimal paths to
their destination. These near optimal or optimal paths follow from
actions and reactions occurring among the water drops and the
water drops with their riverbeds. In the IWD algorithm, several
artificial water drops cooperate to change their environment in
such a way that the optimal path is revealed as the one with the
lowest

soil

on

its

links.

The

solutions

are

incrementally

constructed by the IWD algorithm. Consequently, the IWD

algorithm

is

generally

constructive

population-based

optimization algorithm.

vii.

Charged System Search

Charged System Search (CSS) is a new optimization algorithm

based on some principles from physics and mechanics. CSS
utilizes

the

governing

laws

of

Coulomb

and

Gauss

from

electrostatics and the Newtonian laws of mechanics. CSS is a

multi-agent approach in which each agent is a Charged Particle
(CP). CPs can affect each other based on their fitness values and
their separation distances. The quantity of the resultant force is
determined by using the electrostatics laws and the quality of the
movement is determined using Newtonian mechanics laws. CSS is
applicable to all optimization fields; especially it is suitable for
non-smooth or non-convex domains. This algorithm provides a
good balance between the exploration and the exploitation
paradigms of the algorithm which can considerably improve the
efficiency of the algorithm and therefore the CSS also can be
considered as a good global and local optimizer simultaneously.

14

APPLICATIONS OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

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

interferometer.

an

orbital

NASA

is

swarm

for

investigating

self
the

assembly
use

of

and

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 nanobots within the body for the
purpose of killing cancer tumors!
applications of Swarm Technology.

Here are some of the

a.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 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.

Figure iii Crowd Simulation in Maya

15

b.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

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
large hurdles to commercial deployment. Mobile media and new
technologies have the potential to change the threshold for
collective action due to swarm intelligence.
Airlines have also used ant-based routing in assigning aircraft
arrivals to airport gates. At Southwest Airlines a 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's the best 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, " Dr. Lawson says

Figure iv Swarm Technology used in Arirlines

16

c. Clustering Behavior Of Ants

Ants build cemeteries by collecting dead bodies into a

single place in the nest. They also organize the spatial disposition
of larvae into clusters with the younger, smaller larvae in the
cluster center and the older ones at its periphery. This clustering
behavior has motivated a number of scientific studies.

Figure v Clustering behabour of Ants

d. Nest Building Behavior Of Wasps And Termites

Wasps build nests with a highly complex internal structure
that is well beyond the cognitive capabilities of a single wasp.
Termites build nests whose dimensions are

normous when

compared to a single individual, which can measure as little as a

few millimeters. Scientists have been studying the coordination
mechanisms that allow the construction of these structures and
have proposed probabilistic models exploiting insects behavior.
Some of these models are implemented in computer programs to
produce simulated structures that recall the morphology
the real nests

Figure vi Nest Building Behavior Of Wasps And

Termites

17

e. Flocking And Schooling In Birds And Fish

Scientists have shown that these elegant swarm-level
behaviors can be understood as the result of a self-organized
process where no leader is in charge and each individual bases its
movement decisions solely on locally available information: the
distance, perceived speed, and direction of movement of
neighbours. These studies have inspired a number of computer
simulations that are now used in the computer graphics industry
for the realistic reproduction of flocking in movies and computer
games.

Figure vii Flocking of birds

Figure viii Flocking simulation

18

f. Ant Colony Optimization

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 the values of which are modified at runtime by
the ants.

Figure ix ACO

19

g. Particle Swarm Optimization

It is inspired by social behaviors in flocks of birds and
schools of fish. In practice, in the initialization phase each particle
is given a random initial position and an initial velocity. The
position of the particle represents a solution of the problem and
has therefore a value, given by the objective function. At each
iteration of the algorithm, each particle moves with a velocity that

is a weighted sum of three components: the old velocity, a

velocity component that drives the particle towards the location
in the search space where it previously found the best solution so
far, and a velocity component that drives the particle towards
the location in the search space where the neighbor particles
found the best solution so far.

20

h. Swarm Based Network Management

Schoonderwoerd et al. proposed Ant-based Control (ABC),
an algorithm for routing and load balancing in circuit-switched
networks; Di Caro and Dorigo proposed AntNet, an algorithm for

routing in packet-switched networks. While ABC was a proofofconcept, AntNet, which is an ACO algorithm, was compared to
many state-of-the-art algorithms and its performance was found
to be competitive especially in situation of highly dynamic and
stochastic data traffic as can be observed in Internet-like
networks. An extension of AntNet has been successfully applied
to ad-hoc networks.

21

i. Cooperative Behaviour In Swarms Of Robots

There are a number of swarm behaviours observed in

natural systems that have inspired innovative ways of solving
problems by using swarms of robots. This is what is called swarm
robotics. In other words, swarm robotics is the application of
swarm intelligence principles to the control of swarms of robots.
As with swarm intelligence systems in general, swarm robotics
systems can have either a scientific or an engineering flavour.
Clustering in a swarm of robots was mentioned above as an
example of artificial/scientific system.

22

ADVANTAGES OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

It is easily adoptable as conventional workgroups devise

various

standard

operating

procedures

to

react

to

predetermined stimuli. But swarms have better ability to

adjust to new situations or to change beyond a narrow
range of options.

Evolution

is

the

result

of

adaptation.

Conventional

bureaucratic systems can shift the locus of adaptation

(slowly) from one part of the system to another. In swarm
systems, individual variation and imperfection lead to
perpetual novelty, which leads to evolution

Resilient. A swarm is a collective system made up of

multitudes

in

parallel,

which

results

in

enormous

redundancy. Because the swarm is highly adaptable and

evolves quickly, failures tend to be minimal.

DISADVANTAGES OF SWARM TECHNOLOGY

It is non-optimal and uncontrollable as 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.

 It is unpredictable as the complexity of a swarm system

leads to unforeseeable results. Emergent novelty is a
primary characteristic of self-organisation by adaptive
systems.

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,

indirectly

causes

everything,

and

everything indirectly causes A

It is non-immediate as 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.
23

Marco Dorigos Swarmbots are small, simple robots programmed to cooperate

according to the rules of swarm intelligence. Here, the bots pull together to negotiate
a set of stairsa task that one could not effectively do on its own because of its size,
but that it can accomplish when linked to others in a swarm. Image courtesy of
Marco Dorigo

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CONCLUSION
The idea of swarm behavior may still seem strange because
we are used to relatively linear bureaucratic models. In fact, this
kind of behavior characterizes natural systems ranging from
flocks of birds to schools of fish. Humans are more complex than
ants or fish and have lots more capacity for novel behavior, some
unexpected results are likely, and for this reason, leading
scientists

and

organizations

will

further

pursue

swarm

approaches. Swarm Intelligence provides a distributive approach

to the problem solving mimicking the very simple natural process
of cooperation. According to my survey many solutions that had
been previously solved using other AI approach like genetic
algorithm neural network are also solve able by this approach

also. Due to its simple architecture and adaptive nature like ACO
has it is more likely to be seen much more in the future.

25

References
1. N. Correll, D. Rus. Architectures and control of networked
robotic systems. In: Serge Kernbach (Ed.): Handbook of
Collective Robotics, pp. 81-104, Pan Stanford, Singapore,
2013.
2. Kushleyev, A.; Mellinger, D.; Powers, C.; Kumar, V., "Towards
a swarm of agile micro quadrotors" Autonomous Robots,
Volume 35, Issue 4, pp 287-300, November 2013
3. A self-organizing thousand-robot swarm". Harvard. 14
August 2014.

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