APPLICATIONS OF ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

1 Antnet
AntNet is an algorithm for adaptive best-effort routing in IP networks. AntNet's design is based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) framework. It follows a metaheuristic for combinatorial optimization.

ACO features a multi-agent organization, stigmergic communication among the agents, distributed operations, use of a stochastic decision policy to construct solutions, stigmergic learning of the parameters of the decision policy, and so on. AntNet has been the first ACO algorithm for routing in packet-switched networks.

2 SWARM ROBOTICS
Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of multirobot systems which consist of large numbers of relatively simple physical robots. The goal of this approach is to study the design of robots (both their physical body and their controlling behaviors) such that a desired collective behavior emerges from the inter-robot interactions and the interactions of the robots with the environment, inspired but not limited by the emergent behavior observed in social insects.

Potential application for swarm robotics include tasks that demand for extreme miniaturization (nanorobotics, microbotics), on the one hand, as for instance distributed sensing tasks in micromachinery or the human body. On the other hand, swarm robotics is suited to tasks that demand for extremely cheap designs, for instance a mining task, or an agricultural foraging task.

The U.S. military is investigating swarm techniques for controlling unmanned vehicles. ESA is thinking about an orbital swarm for self assembly and interferometry. NASA is investigating the use of swarm technology for planetary mapping. Artists are using swarm technology as a means of creating complex interactive systems or simulating crowds. Tim Burton's Batman Returns was the first movie to make use of swarm.
technology for rendering, realistically depicting the movements of a group of penguins using the Boids system. 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.