Task allocation in ant colonies

Alejandro Cornejo; Anna Dornhaus; Nancy Lynch; Radhika Nagpal

doi:10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4

Task allocation in ant colonies

Alejandro Cornejo, Anna Dornhaus, Nancy Lynch, Radhika Nagpal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

29 Scopus citations

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)
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	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4
State	Published - 2014
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)
Volume	8784
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Other

Other	28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2014
Country/Territory	United States
City	Austin
Period	10/12/14 → 10/15/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Theoretical Computer Science
General Computer Science

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4

Cite this

Cornejo, A., Dornhaus, A., Lynch, N., & Nagpal, R. (2014). Task allocation in ant colonies. In F. Kuhn (Ed.), Distributed Computing - 28th International Symposium, DISC 2014, Proceedings (pp. 46-60). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 8784). Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4

Task allocation in ant colonies. / Cornejo, Alejandro; Dornhaus, Anna; Lynch, Nancy et al.
Distributed Computing - 28th International Symposium, DISC 2014, Proceedings. ed. / Fabian Kuhn. Springer-Verlag, 2014. p. 46-60 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 8784).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Cornejo, A, Dornhaus, A, Lynch, N & Nagpal, R 2014, Task allocation in ant colonies. in F Kuhn (ed.), Distributed Computing - 28th International Symposium, DISC 2014, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 8784, Springer-Verlag, pp. 46-60, 28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2014, Austin, United States, 10/12/14. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4

Cornejo A, Dornhaus A, Lynch N, Nagpal R. Task allocation in ant colonies. In Kuhn F, editor, Distributed Computing - 28th International Symposium, DISC 2014, Proceedings. Springer-Verlag. 2014. p. 46-60. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-45174-8_4

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Task allocation in ant colonies

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