Swarm Intelligence: Introduction and Applications (Natural Computing Series)

The laws that govern the behavior of social insect colonies continue to mesmerize researchers. Scientists have applied the behavior of social insects in new approaches to optimization and the control of robots. This field of research is now referred to as swarm intelligence, and it is characterized by a decentralized and probabilistic way of working, the key advantages being robustness and flexibility. This edited book is intended both as an overview of swarm intelligence and as a guide to the most interesting recent developments, and thus will be of interest to both novices and experienced researchers in the field. It successfully combines an overview of swarm intelligence with an up-to-date treatment of the advances in the field.

The laws that govern the collective behavior of social insects, flocks of birds, or fish schools continue to mesmerize researchers. While individuals are rather unsophisticated, in cooperation they can solve complex tasks, a prime example being the ability of ant colonies to find shortest paths between their nests and food sources. Task-solving results from self-organization, which often evolves from simple means of communication, either directly or indirectly via changing the environment, the latter referred to as stigmergy. Scientists have applied these principles in new approaches, for example to optimization and the control of robots. Characteristics of the resulting systems include robustness and flexibility. This field of research is now referred to as swarm intelligence.

The contributing authors are among the top researchers in their domain. The book is intended to provide an overview of swarm intelligence to novices, and to offer researchers in the field an update on interesting recent developments. Introductory chapters deal with the biological foundations, optimization, swarm robotics, and applications in new-generation telecommunication networks, while the second part contains chapters on more specific topics of swarm intelligence research such as the evolution of robot behavior, the use of particle swarms for dynamic optimization, and organic computing.