Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: First explorations of a computational model of polymorphic ant caste ratio adaptation through environmental stimuli
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2008-01-21
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en
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Abstract
Swarm intelligence is the appearance of intelligent behaviour of a collective, which
consists of relatively simple agents. Ants appear to utilize a mechanism similar to
swarm intelligence as individual input from single ants is responsible for an
adequate response by the colony as a whole. Worker to soldier ratio changes within
an ant colony are an example of this type of swarm intelligence. The literature
yielded two environmental factors which may contribute to a ratio change in ant
colonies in the literature, namely food presentation and the detected presence of
ants from another colony. In this paper we simulate ant colonies in different
situations and environments through a mechanism based on swarm intelligence.
We have tested our model in three separate condition sets, namely adaptation of the
colony ratio through food presentation alone, through detected enemy presence
alone and through a combination of both. Our results indicate that in our model
only adaptation on the basis of a combination of the two factors leads to an
improvement of the competitiveness of the colony as opposed to a colony with a
fixed ratio.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen