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Measuring Stigmergy: The Case of Foraging Ants

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Engineering Self-Organising Systems (ESOA 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4335))

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Abstract

Software today is no longer monolithic, but typically part of a system consisting of many components. As engineers are no longer in control of the entire system, novel methods are sought to design complex software systems that are built from the bottom up and are robust in a dynamically changing environment. The coordination method called stigmergy that is inspired by the collective behavior of social insects is one of the candidates to help solving this problem. In this paper we make a first step in formally understanding the essence of stigmergetic behavior by studying the famous ant foraging model of Deneubourg et al. We explore the relationship between the initial (dis)order in the environment and the performance of the ant foraging behavior. We further study how this configuration of the task to solve governs the behavior of the ant colony, with special focus on the level of coordination that is achieved.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AITIA International Inc., 1039 Czetz J. utca 48-50, Budapest, Hungary

    Laszlo Gulyas

  2. Dept. of Ergonomics and Psychology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1111 Egry J.u.1.E, Budapest, Hungary

    Laszlo Laufer

  3. Dept. of Software Technology and Methodology &, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, Lorand Eotvos University, 1117 Pazmany Peter setany 1/c, Budapest, Hungary

    Richard Szabo

Authors
  1. Laszlo Gulyas
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  2. Laszlo Laufer
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  3. Richard Szabo
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Editor information

Sven A. Brueckner Salima Hassas Márk Jelasity Daniel Yamins

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© 2007 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Gulyas, L., Laufer, L., Szabo, R. (2007). Measuring Stigmergy: The Case of Foraging Ants. In: Brueckner, S.A., Hassas, S., Jelasity, M., Yamins, D. (eds) Engineering Self-Organising Systems. ESOA 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4335. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69868-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69868-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-69867-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69868-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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