Abstract
In this paper we propose a mathematical model for studying the phenomenon of division of labor in ant colonies. Inside this model we investigate how simple task allocation mechanisms can be used to achieve an optimal division of labor.
We believe the proposed model captures the essential biological features of division of labor in ant colonies and is general enough to study a variety of different task allocation mechanisms. Within this model we propose a distributed randomized algorithm for task allocation that imposes only minimal requirements on the ants; it uses a constant amount of memory and relies solely on a primitive binary feedback function to sense the current labor allocation. We show that with high probability the proposed algorithm converges to a near-optimal division of labor in time which is proportional to the logarithm of the colony size.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Distributed Computing - 28th International Symposium, DISC 2014, Proceedings |
Editors | Fabian Kuhn |
Publisher | Springer Verlag |
Pages | 46-60 |
Number of pages | 15 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783662451731 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2014 - Austin, United States Duration: Oct 12 2014 → Oct 15 2014 |
Publication series
Name | Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) |
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Volume | 8784 |
ISSN (Print) | 0302-9743 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1611-3349 |
Conference
Conference | 28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2014 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Austin |
Period | 10/12/14 → 10/15/14 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Theoretical Computer Science
- General Computer Science