1. Ant Algorithm and its Applications for Solving Large Scale Optimization Problems on Parallel Computers Stefka Fidanova Institute for Information and Communication Technologies Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

2. Hard Optimization Problems Vehicle routing problem Decision making problem Cutting stock problem Sensor layout problem GPS surveying problem Multidimensional surface global optimum

3. Metaheuristics A metaheuristics are methods for solving a very general class of computational problems by combining user- given black-box procedures in the hope of obtaining a more efficient or more robust procedure. The name combines the Greek prefix "meta" ("beyond", here in the sense of "higher level") and "heuristic" (from ευρισκειν, heuriskein, "to find").computationalblack-box proceduresGreekmeta Metaheuristics are generally applied to problems for which there is no satisfactory problem-specific algorithm or heuristic; or when it is not practical to implement such a method. Most commonly used metaheuristics are targeted to combinatorial optimization problems, but of course can handle any problem that can be recast in that form, such as solving boolean equationsalgorithmcombinatorial optimizationboolean equations

4. Metaheuristics Methods Genetic algorithm Simulated annealing Tabu search Ant colony optimization Particle swarm optimization

5. Ant Colony Optimization

6. Procedure ACO Begin initialize the pheromone while stopping criterion not satisfied do position each ant on a starting node repeat for each ant do chose next node end for until every ant has build a solution update the pheromone end while end

7. Level of Parallelism Problem division to subproblems Several ant colonies communicates after every iteration Several ant colonies without communications

8. Problem Division to Subproblems

9. Ant Colonies with communications

10. Ant Colonies without communications

11. Examples Sensor layout problem Global optimum on multidimensional surface

12. Wireless Sensor Network Reconnaissance Surveillance Forest fire prevention Volcano eruption study Health data monitoring Civil engineering

13. WSN Layout Problem High Energy Communication Node Sensing Radius Communication Radius Fully Covered and Connected Area Minimal Number of Sensors

14. Sensor Layout Problem Ant colonies without communications

15. Global Optimum on Multidimensional Surface

16. Surface decomposition 4 ant colonies on one processor Several colonies without communications

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