Skip to main content
Log in

Abstract

Physical A* (PHA*) and its multi-agent version MAPHA* are algorithms that find the shortest path between two points in an unknown real physical environment with one or many mobile agents [A. Felner et al. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 21:631–679, 2004; A. Felner et al. Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Bologna, Italy, 2002:240–247]. Previous work assumed a complete sharing of knowledge between agents. Here we apply this algorithm to a more restricted model of communication which we call large pheromones, where agents communicate by writing and reading data at nodes of the graph that constitutes their environment. Previous works on pheromones usually assumed that only a limited amount of data can be written at each node. The large pheromones model assumes no limitation on the size of the pheromones and thus each agent can write its entire knowledge at a node. We show that with this model of communication the behavior of a multi-agent system is almost as good as with complete knowledge sharing. Under this model we also introduce a new type of agent, a communication agent, that is responsible for spreading the knowledge among other agents by moving around the graph and copying pheromones. Experimental results show that the contribution of communication agents is rather limited as data is already spread to other agents very well with large pheromones

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A. Wagner A. M. Bruckstein (2000) ArticleTitle“ANTS: Agents, networks, trees, and subgraphs” Future Gen. Comp. Sys. J. 16 IssueID8 915–926

    Google Scholar 

  2. V. Yanovski I. A. Wagner A. M. Bruckstein (2001) ArticleTitle“Vertex-ant-walk: A robust method for efficient exploration of faulty graphs” Ann. Math. Art. Intel. 31 IssueID1–4 99–112 Occurrence Handle1839891

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. V. M. Yanovski I. A. Wagner A. M. Bruckstein (2003) ArticleTitle“A distributed ant algorithm for efficiently patrolling a network” Algorithmica 37 165–186 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s00453-003-1030-9 Occurrence Handle2004f:05180

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. A. Felner R. Stern A. Ben-Yair S. Kraus N. Netanyahu (2004) ArticleTitle“PhA*: Finding the shortest path with A* in unknown physical environments” J. Art. Intel. Res. 21 631–679 Occurrence Handle2130737

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. A. Felner, R. Stern, and S. Kraus, “PHA*: Performing A* in unknown physical environments,” In Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Bologna, Italy, 2002, pp. 240–247.

  6. P. E. Hart N. J. Nilsson B. Raphael (1968) ArticleTitle“A formal basis for the heuristic determination of minimum cost paths” IEEE Trans. Sys. Sci. Cybernet SCC-4 IssueID2 100–107

    Google Scholar 

  7. Felner A., Shoshani Y., Wagner I.A., Bruckstein A.M. (2004). “Large pheromones: A case study with multi-agent physical A*,” in Forth International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence. (ANTS 2004), pp. 366–373

  8. R. Dechter J. Pearl (1985) ArticleTitle“Generalized best-first search strategies and the optimality of A*” J. Assoc. Comp. Machinery 32 IssueID3 505–536 Occurrence Handle87a:68140

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. R. E. Korf (1985) ArticleTitle“Depth-first iterative-deepening: An optimal admissible tree search” Art. Intel. 27 IssueID1 97–109 Occurrence Handle0573.68030 Occurrence Handle810280

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. R. E. Korf (1993) ArticleTitle“Linear-space best-first search” Art. Intel. 62 IssueID1 41–78 Occurrence Handle0778.68079 Occurrence Handle94f:68068

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. P. Cucka N. S. Netanyahu A. Rosenfeld (1996) ArticleTitle“Learning in navigation: Goal finding in graphs” Int. J. Pattern Recogn. Art. Intel. 10 IssueID5 429–446

    Google Scholar 

  12. R. E. Korf (1990) ArticleTitle“Real-time heuristic search” Art. Intel. 42 IssueID3 189–211 Occurrence Handle0718.68082

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Shmoulian L., Rimon E. (1998). “ Roadmap-A*: An algorithm for minimizing travel effort in sensor based mobile robot navigation”. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Leuven, Belgium, May pp. 356–362

  14. Stentz A. (1994). “Optimal and efficient path planning for partially-known environments”. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. San Diego, CA, May pp. 3310–3317

  15. Bender M.A., Fernandez A., Ron D., Sahai A., Vadhan S.P. (1998). “The power of a pebble: Exploring and mapping directed graphs”. In Proceedings of the Thirtieth Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, Dallas, Texas, May pp. 269–278

  16. G. Caro ParticleDi M. Dorigo (1998) ArticleTitle“AntNet: Distributed stigmergetic control for communications networks” J. Art. Intel. Res. 9 317–365

    Google Scholar 

  17. S. Appleby S. Steward (1994) ArticleTitle“Mobile software agents for control in telecommunication networks” Br. Telecom Technol. J. 12 104–113

    Google Scholar 

  18. R. Schoonderwoerd O. Holland J. Bruten L. Rothkrantz (1996) ArticleTitle“Ant-based load balancing in telecommunications networks” Adapt. Behav. 5 IssueID2 214–237

    Google Scholar 

  19. E. Pagello A. D. Angelo F. Montesello F. Garelli C. Ferrari (1999) ArticleTitle“Cooperative behaviors in multi-robot systems through implicit communication” Robot. Auton. Syst. 29 IssueID1 65–77 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0921-8890(99)00039-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. T. R. Balch R. C. Arkin (1994) ArticleTitle“Communication in reactive multiagent robotic systems” Auton. Robots 1 IssueID1 1–25

    Google Scholar 

  21. Hugues L. (2000). “Collective grounded representations for robots”. In Proceedings of Fifth International Conference on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2000), pp. 79–88

  22. D. Jung A. Zelinsky (July 2000) ArticleTitle“Grounded symbolic communication between heterogeneous cooperating robots” Auton. Robots 8 IssueID3 269–292

    Google Scholar 

  23. F. R. Adler D. M. Gordon (1992) ArticleTitle“Information collection and spread by networks of patrolling ants” The Am. Nat. 140 IssueID3 373–400

    Google Scholar 

  24. D.M. Gordon (1995) ArticleTitle“The expandable network of ant exploration” Anim. Behav. 50 372–378 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0003-3472(95)80100-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. B. Houmlldobler E.O. Wilson (1990) The ants Springer Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  26. S. Goss S. Aron J. L. Deneubourg J. M. Pasteels (1989) ArticleTitle“Self-organized shortcuts in the argentine ant” Naturwissenschaften 76 579–581 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00462870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. R. Beckers J. L. Deneubourg S. Goss (1992) ArticleTitle“Trails and u-turns in the selection of the shortest path by the ant lasius niger” J. Theor. Biol. 159 397–415

    Google Scholar 

  28. M. J. Mataric (1992) “Designing emergent behaviors: From local interactions to collective intelligence” J. Meyer H. Roitblat S Wilson (Eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior MIT Press Honolulu, Hawaii 432–441

    Google Scholar 

  29. Deneubourg J., Goss S., Sandini G., Ferrari F., Dario P. (1990). “Self-organizing collection and transport of objects in unpredictable environments”. In Japan-U.S.A. Symposium on Flexible Automation, Kyoto, Japan pp. 1093–1098

  30. Drogoul A., Ferber J., From tom thumb to the dockers: Some experiments with foraging robots. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1992, pp. 451–459

  31. Benda M., Jagannathan V., Dodhiawalla R. “On optimal cooperation of knowledge sources,” Technical Report BCS-G 2010-28, Boeing AI Center, August 1985

  32. Haynes T., Sen S. (1986). Adaptation and Learning in Multi-Agent Systems, chapter Evolving Behavioral Strategies in Predators and Prey, Springer, pp. 113–126

  33. R. C. Arkin T. Balch (1997) ArticleTitle“Aura: Principles and practice in review” J. Exp. Theor. Art. Intel. 9 IssueID2/3 175–188

    Google Scholar 

  34. R. A. Brooks (March 1986) ArticleTitle“A robust layered control system for a mobile robot” IEEE J. Robot. Automation RA-2 IssueID1 14–23

    Google Scholar 

  35. R. C. Arkin (1990) ArticleTitle“Integrating behavioral, perceptual, and world knowledge in reactive navigation” Robot. Auton. Sys. 6 105–122

    Google Scholar 

  36. Wagner I. A., Bruckstein A. M. (1997). Communications, Computation, Control, and Signal Processing: A Tribute to Thomas Kailath, chapter Cooperative Cleaners: A Case of Distributed Ant-Robotics, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands pp. 289–308

  37. M. Dorigo L. M. Gambardella (1997) ArticleTitle“Ant colony system: A cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem” IEEE Trans. Evol. Comp. 1 IssueID1 53–66

    Google Scholar 

  38. V. Maniezzo M. Dorigo A. Colorni (1994) ArticleTitle“The ant system: Optimization by a colony of cooperating agents” IEEE Trans. Sys. Man Cybernet.-Part B 26 IssueID1 29–41

    Google Scholar 

  39. Rekhter Y., Li T. “A border gateway protocol,” RFC 1771, T.J Watson Research Center IBM Corporation & Cisco Systems, March 1995

  40. Malkin G. “RIPng protocol applicability statement,” RFC 2081, IETF Network Working Group, January 1997

  41. Valckenaers P., Marik V., McFarlane D. C. “Holonic and multi-agent systems for manufacturing,” First International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, 2003

  42. M. Dorigo G. Caro ParticleDi L. M. Gambardella (1999) ArticleTitle“Ant algorithms for discrete optimization” Art. Life 5 IssueID2 137–172

    Google Scholar 

  43. Gambardella L.M., Dorigo M. “Has-sop: An hybrid ant system for the sequential ordering problem”, Technical Report IDSIA 97-11, IDSIA, Lugano, Switzerland, 1997

  44. L. M. Gambardella E. Taillard M. Dorigo (1999) ArticleTitle“Ant colonies for the quadratic assignment problem” J. Oper. Res. Soc. 50 167–176

    Google Scholar 

  45. Bullnheimer B., Hartl R.F., Strauss C. “An improved ant system algorithm for the vehicle routing problem”. In Sixth Viennese workshop on Optimal Control, Dynamic Games, Nonlinear Dynamics and Adaptive Systems, Vienna, May 1997, pp. 21–23

  46. A. Colorni M. Dorigo V. Maniezzo M. Trubian (1994) ArticleTitle“Ant system for job-shop scheduling” JORBEL— Bel. J. Oper. Res., Stat. Comp. Sci. 34 IssueID1 39–53

    Google Scholar 

  47. D. Costa A. Hertz (1997) ArticleTitle“Ants can colour graphs” J. Oper. Res. Soc. 48 295–305 Occurrence Handle10.1038/sj.jors.2600357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. R. Schoonderwoerd O. Holland J. Bruten L. Rothkrantz (1997) ArticleTitle“Ant-based load balancing in telecommunications networks” Adapt. Behav. 5 IssueID2 169–207

    Google Scholar 

  49. G. Caro ParticleDi M. Dorigo (1998) ArticleTitle“Antnet: Distributed stigmergetic control for communications networks” JAIR — J. Art. Intel. Res. 9 317–365

    Google Scholar 

  50. Navarro Varela G., Sinclair M.C. “Ant colony optimisation for virtual-wavelength-path routing and wavelength allocation”. In Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’99), Washington DC, USA, July 1999 pp. 1809–1816

  51. A. Okabe B. Boots K. Sugihara (1992) Spatial Tessellations, Concepts, and Applications of Voronoi Diagrams Wiley Chichester, UK

    Google Scholar 

  52. Barber C.B., Dobkin D.P., Huhdanpaa H. “The Quickhull algorithm for convex hull”. Technical report, Geometry Center Technical Report GCG53, University of Minnesota, 1993

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ariel Felner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Felner, A., Shoshani, Y., Altshuler, Y. et al. Multi-agent Physical A* with Large Pheromones. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 12, 3–34 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-005-3943-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-005-3943-y

Keywords

Navigation