Evolving adaptive pheromone path planning mechanisms

Abstract

Agents guided by synthetic pheromones can imitate the behavior of insects in tasks such as path planning. These systems are well suited to problems such as path planning for unmanned robotic vehicles. We have developed a model for controlling robotic vehicles in combat missions using synthetic pheromones. In the course of our experimentation, we have identified the need for proper tuning of the algorithms to get the desired behavior. We briefly describe the synthetic pheromone mechanisms for dynamically finding targets and planning safe paths. Genetic algorithms for automatically tuning the behavior of the pheromone equations are described.