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All-optical implementation of the ant colony optimization algorithm

All-optical implementation of the ant colony optimization algorithm
All-optical implementation of the ant colony optimization algorithm
We report all-optical implementation of the optimization algorithm for the famous “ant colony” problem. Ant colonies progressively optimize pathway to food discovered by one of the ants through identifying the discovered route with volatile chemicals (pheromones) secreted on the way back from the food deposit. Mathematically this is an important example of graph optimization problem with dynamically changing parameters. Using an optical network with nonlinear waveguides to represent the graph and a feedback loop, we experimentally show that photons traveling through the network behave like ants that dynamically modify the environment to find the shortest pathway to any chosen point in the graph. This proof-of-principle demonstration illustrates how transient nonlinearity in the optical system can be exploited to tackle complex optimization problems directly, on the hardware level, which may be used for self-routing of optical signals in transparent communication networks and energy flow in photonic systems.
1-15
Hu, Wenchao
47627013-f00c-4e39-9bb2-42f21fac57a8
Wu, Kan
2257a2a5-e70b-461d-8ae5-31b98ef572e5
Shum, Perry Ping
5c669130-28f6-4b50-8568-78e05e2ce87d
Zheludev, Nikolay
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Soci, Cesare
6c86324e-2968-4e90-9436-4a92a4b26cec
Hu, Wenchao
47627013-f00c-4e39-9bb2-42f21fac57a8
Wu, Kan
2257a2a5-e70b-461d-8ae5-31b98ef572e5
Shum, Perry Ping
5c669130-28f6-4b50-8568-78e05e2ce87d
Zheludev, Nikolay
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Soci, Cesare
6c86324e-2968-4e90-9436-4a92a4b26cec

Hu, Wenchao, Wu, Kan, Shum, Perry Ping, Zheludev, Nikolay and Soci, Cesare (2016) All-optical implementation of the ant colony optimization algorithm. Scientific Reports, 6 (1), 1-15. (doi:10.1038/srep26283).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We report all-optical implementation of the optimization algorithm for the famous “ant colony” problem. Ant colonies progressively optimize pathway to food discovered by one of the ants through identifying the discovered route with volatile chemicals (pheromones) secreted on the way back from the food deposit. Mathematically this is an important example of graph optimization problem with dynamically changing parameters. Using an optical network with nonlinear waveguides to represent the graph and a feedback loop, we experimentally show that photons traveling through the network behave like ants that dynamically modify the environment to find the shortest pathway to any chosen point in the graph. This proof-of-principle demonstration illustrates how transient nonlinearity in the optical system can be exploited to tackle complex optimization problems directly, on the hardware level, which may be used for self-routing of optical signals in transparent communication networks and energy flow in photonic systems.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 22 April 2016
Published date: 25 May 2016
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 394281
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/394281
PURE UUID: bcd5ff56-2e2e-46c6-a9f4-9f0c02b8a7e3
ORCID for Nikolay Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 May 2016 09:28
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:34

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Contributors

Author: Wenchao Hu
Author: Kan Wu
Author: Perry Ping Shum
Author: Cesare Soci

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