ANTS 2006
Fifth International Workshop on
Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence
September 2006. Brussels, Belgium
With gracious support by:
AntOptima
Comp2Sys
Coomunaute Francais
IEEE CIS
Home
Call for Papers
Committee
Proceedings
Program
Best Paper Award
Tutorials
Calendar
Submission
Registration
Practicalities
Location
Accomodation
Previous Editions
ACO Homepage

The ANTS 2006 conference proceedings are available online. For more information click here.

Scope of the Workshop

Swarm intelligence is a relatively new discipline that deals with the study of self-organizing processes both in nature and in artificial systems. Researchers in ethology and animal behavior have proposed many models to explain interesting aspects of social insect behavior such as self-organization and shape-formation. Recently, algorithms inspired by these models have been proposed to solve difficult computational problems.

An example of a particularly successful research direction in swarm intelligence is ant colony optimization, the main focus of which is on discrete optimization problems. Ant colony optimization has been applied successfully to a large number of difficult discrete optimization problems including the traveling salesman problem, the quadratic assignment problem, scheduling, vehicle routing, etc., as well as to routing in telecommunication networks. Another interesting approach is that of particle swarm optimization, that focuses on continuous optimization problems. Here too, a number of successful applications can be found in the recent literature. Swarm robotics is another relevant field. Here, the focus is on applying swarm intelligence techniques to the control of large groups of cooperating autonomous robots.

The ANTS 2006 workshop will give researchers in swarm intelligence the opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to discuss current developments and applications.

The four-day workshop will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on September 4-7, 2006. September 4 will be devoted to tutorials.

Relevant Research Areas

ANTS 2006 solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm intelligence. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:
  • Behavioral models of social insects or other animal societies that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches.
  • Empirical and theoretical research in swarm intelligence.
  • Application of swarm intelligence methods, such as ant colony optimization or particle swarm optimization, to real-world problems.
  • Theoretical and experimental research in swarm robotics systems.