Combinatorial Optimization by Cooperative Mechanism of Ant Colony and Aphid

In this study, we propose an optimization method by the cooperative mechanism of ant and aphid as a new Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). This algorithm is named Ant Colony Optimization with Cooperative Aphid (ACOCA). In ACOCA algorithm, the aphid searches neighborhood solutions. This solution information is treated as a honey obtained from the aphid and the honey affects the search of ACO. Moreover, the aphid shares a solution information with the ant. We apply ACOCA to three Traveling Salesman Problems (TSPs) and confirm its effectiveness. 1