Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Swarm Intelligence -
Introduction
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Why do we need new computing techniques?

The computer revolution changed human societies:

communication
transportation
industrial production
administration, writing, and bookkeeping
technological advances / science
entertainment

However, some problems cannot be tackled with

traditional hardware and software!
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Drawback of traditional techniques

Computing tasks have to be
well-defined
fairly predictable
computable in reasonable time with serial computers
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Hard problems
Well-defined, but computational hard problems
NP hard problems (Travelling Salesman Problem)
Action-response planning (Chess playing)
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Hard problems
Fuzzy problems
intelligent human-machine interaction
natural language understanding

Example: Fuzziness in sound processing

t t
“E-vo-lu-tio-na-ry Com-pu-ta-tion” “E-vo-lu-tio-na-ry Com-pu-ta-tion”
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Hard problems
Hardly predictable and dynamic problems
real-world autonomous robots
management and business planning

Japanese piano robot Trade at the stock exchange

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What are the alternatives?

DNA based computing (chemical computation)
Quantum computing (quantum-physical computation)
Bio-computing (simulation of biological mechanisms)
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Brains and Artificial Neural Networks

dendrites
Properties of the brain
holistic
cell body
parallel
associative
axon learning
The basic unit - the neurone Vertical cut through
the neocortex of a cat redundancy
self-organisation

Functional units of
the human brain
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Evolution and Evolutionary Algorithms

Problem

quality measure: f (x1, x2, x3, x4)

Individual
problem parameters: x1, x2, x3, x4

artificial genes: 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0

representation of one solution

fitness:f (genes)
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Evolution and Evolutionary Algorithms

Fitness
Population
2 5 of solutions
1
3 6
4
Evaluation Selection

Mutatio Reproductio
n n
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EAs - Optimization without knowledge

The task: Design a bent tube with a maximum flow
Goal: water flow f (x1,x2,…,x9) = fmax

x x8 x9
optimum
x6
7
f
x5
x4
x3 Evolutionary expected
x2
x1
Computing
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Foundations of Bio-Computing

Inspiration Identification Application Verification

Natural sciences
Complexity theory
Adaptive algorithms
Artificial Life
Swarm Intelligence
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Fields of application
Robotics / Artificial Intelligence
Process optimisation / Staff scheduling
Telecommunication companies
Entertainment
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What are the limitations

biology makes compromises between different goals
biology sometimes fails
some natural mechanisms are not well understood
well-defined problems can be solved by better means
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What is Swarm Intelligence (SI)?

“The emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple agents.”

(Bonabeau et al, 1999)

Examples
group foraging of social insects
cooperative transportation
division of labour
nest-building of social insects
collective sorting and clustering
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Why is Swarm Intelligence interesting for IT?

Analogies in IT and social insects
distributed system of interacting autonomus agents
goals: performance optimization and robustness
self-organized control and cooperation (decentralized)
division of labour and distributed task allocation
indirect interactions
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How can we design SI systems?

The 3 step process
identification of analogies: in swarm biology and IT systems
understanding: computer modelling of realistic swarm biology
engineering: model simplification and tuning for IT applications
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Some observations...
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Nest-building in social wasps

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Group defence in honey bees

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Ants
Why are ants interesting?
ants solve complex tasks by simple local means
ant productivity is better than the sum of their single activities
ants are ‘grand masters’ in search and exploitation

Which mechanisms are important?

cooperation and division of labour
adaptive task allocation
work stimulation by cultivation
pheromones
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What are there principal mechanisms of

natural organization?
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Self-organization
‘Self-organization is a set of dynamical mechanisms
whereby structures appear at the global level of a
system from interactions of its lower-level components.’
(Bonabeau et al, in Swarm Intelligence, 1999)
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The four bases of self-organization

positive feedback (amplification)
negative feedback (for counter-balance and stabilization)
amplification of fluctuations (randomness, errors, random walks)
multiple interactions
Unloading unload from unload from
source A source B

follow other dancers

Recruiting

dance for dance for

source A source B Hive

Environment

Foraging forage at forage at

source A source B
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Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
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Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Ant foraging
Cooperative search by pheromone trails

Nes Food
t
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Characteristics of self-organized systems

structure emerging from a homogeneous startup state
multistability - coexistence of many stable states
state transitions with a dramatical change of the system behaviour
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Self-organization in a termite simulation

initialization

random walk

bumped

o
n
into
a wood chip drop chip
yes
(Mitchel Resnick, 1994)
Pick-up chip carrying
a wood
n yes
chip
o
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Self-organization in a termite simulation

(Mitchel Resnick, 1994)

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Self-organization in honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Self-organization in honey bee nest building

the queen moves randomly over the combs
eggs are more likely to be layed in the neighbourhood of brood
honey and pollen are deposited randomly in empty cells
four times more honey is brought to the hive than pollen
removal ratios for honey: 0.95; pollen: 0.6
removal of honey and pollen is proportional to the number
of surrounding cells containing brood
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Simulation of honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Simulation of honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Simulation of honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Simulation of honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Simulation of honey bee nest building

Swarm Intelligence Introduction

Simulation of honey bee nest building

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Stigmergy
Stigmergy: stigma (sting) + ergon (work)
= ‘stimulation by work’

Characteristics of stigmergy
indirect agent interaction modification of the
environment environmental modification serves as
external memory work can be continued by any
individual
the same, simple, behavioural rules can create different designs
according to the environmental state
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Stigmergy in termite nest building

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Stigmergy in spider webs

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Stigmergy in spider webs

Spiral analysis - Real spider vs simulation
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Summary
Motivation and methods in biologically inspired IT
there are analogies in distributed computing and social
insects biology has found solution to hard computational
problems biologically inspired computing requires:
identification of analogies
computer modelling of biological mechanisms
adaptation of biological mechanisms for IT
applications
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Summary
Two principles in swarm intelligence
self-organization is based on:
activity amplification by positive feedback
activity balancing by negative feedback
amplification of random fluctuations
multiple interactions
stigmergy - stimulation by work - is based on:
work as behavioural response to the environmental state
an environment that serves as a work state memory
work that does not depend on specific agents