ISBN Swarm Intelligence ( From Natural to Artificial Systems ) book English Paperback

Social insects - ants bees termites and wasps - can be viewed as powerful problem-solving systems with sophisticated collective intelligence. Composed of simple interacting agents this intelligence lies in the networks of interactions among individuals and between individuals and the environment. A fascinating subject social insects are also a powerful metaphor for artificial intelligence and the problems they solve - finding food dividing labor among nestmates building nests responding to external challenges - have important counterparts in engineering and computer science. This book provides a detailed look at models of social insect behaviour and how to apply these models in the design of complex systems. The book shows how these models replace an emphasis on control preprogramming and centralization with designs featuring autonomy emergence and distributed functioning. These designs are proving immensely flexible and robust able to adapt quickly to changing environments and to continue functioning even when individual elements fail. In particular these designs are an exciting approach to the tremendous growth of complexity in software and information. Swarm Intelligence draws on up-to-date research from biology neuroscience artificial intelligence robotics operations research and computer graphics and each chapter is organized around a particular biological example which is then used to develop an algorithm a multiagent system or a group of robots. The book will be an invaluable resource for a broad range of disciplines.