FIND THE SHORTEST PATH BETWEEN

TWO POINTS INSIDE A GRID USING

ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION
ALGORITHM

Under the supervision of Dr. Sutirtha Kumar Guha

Submitted by :
• Anesha Dhali
• Shayan Dutta
• Tuhin Chowdhury
• Ritaja Ghosh
CONTENT
• Introduction
• Field Survey
• Proposed work
• Design Framework
• Experimental result
• Performance Analysis
• Conclusion
• Reference

1
Introduction

• Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a solution based on swarm intelligence and ant
colony optimization algorithm for solving the problem of finding the shortest path between two points in a
rectangular grid.

• Importance:
Efficient path finding is a fundamental problem in various domains such as logistics, transportation, and
network routing. By leveraging swarm intelligence and ant colony optimization, we aim to optimize the
time complexity of finding the shortest path, leading to improved efficiency and resource utilization.

2
FIELD SURVEY

The field survey for our project involved extensive research in the areas related to this
project, which are:
• Swarm intelligence
• Ant colony optimization
• Backtracking
• Path finding
• Grid

We consulted various sources, including research papers and online resources, to gather
valuable insights. This survey provided us with a solid foundation of knowledge and
understanding in our project domain.

3
PROPOSED WORK

The proposed work focuses on solving the problem of finding the shortest path between two points within
a rectangular grid. Our approach involves utilizing the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm to
achieve optimal solutions. The primary objective of our work is to minimize the time required for path
finding. We are currently in the process of refining our approach and implementing the necessary
algorithms to accomplish this goal. Further details and specific implementation strategies will be finalized
as we progress in our project.

4
 DESIGN FRAMEWORK

• We took 20 different grids, where 0 means clear cell and 1 means obstacle.
• We used Backtracking in each of those grids to find the shortest path between two points
as well as the time complexity.
• We noted all the outputs.
• We used Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm(ACO) in each of those grids to find the
shortest path between two points as well as the time complexity.
• We noted all the outputs.
• We compared the outputs of Backtracking and ACO to find out which approach takes
less time.

5
 EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

After doing the experiment this is the result we got:

6
 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

After analysis, we found out that while finding the shortest path, the time complexity of ACO is
1069.669 times lesser than the time complexity of Backtracking in average.

Backtracking Ant Colony

Optimization
Average time 4.398822784 0.004117861
complexity

7
 conclusion

Our project was focused on finding the shortest path in a grid using Ant Colony Optimization.
Experimental results showed the efficiency of the proposed approach, outperforming traditional
methods. This highlights the potential of ACO for path finding problems, contributing to the
advancement of Swarm Intelligence algorithms in optimization. The developed solution has real-
world applications in various domains, including logistics routing, network optimization, and
robotics path planning. Future work can explore further optimizations and expand the application
scope of ACO algorithms.

8
 references

[1] Chuanqi Zheng, Kiju Lee (2023). Consensus decision-making in artificial swarms via entropy-based local negotiation and preference
updating.

Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11721-023-00226-3

[2] Michael Bodi, Ronald Thenius, Martina Szopek, Thomas Schmickl, Karl Crailsheim (2011). Interaction of robot swarms using the
honeybee-inspired control algorithm BEECLUST.
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13873954.2011.601420

[3] Suleyman Mete, Faruk Serin, Zeynel Abidin Çil (2020). Robotic disassembly line balancing problem: A mathematical model and ant
colony optimization approach

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0307904X20302249

[4] R. Rueda, L.G.B. Ruiz, M.P. Cuéllar, M.C. Pegalajar (2020). An Ant Colony Optimization approach for symbolic regression using
Straight Line Programs. Application to energy consumption modelling
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0888613X19303408