Ant Colony Optimization: A Computational Intelligence Technique

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a novel computational technique inspired by a foraging behavior of ants has been successfully applied for solving real world optimization problems. This behavioral pattern inspires artificial ants for the search of solutions to the various types of optimization problems. ACO is a probabilistic search approach founded on the idea of evolutionary process. In this paper, the authors present an overview of ant colony optimization and ACO variants up to now. They also summarize various types of applications. Finally, they focus on some research efforts directed at receiving a dipper understanding of the ant colony optimization algorithms.