Extension of the Ant Algorithm with Additional Sources of Information for Managing a Swarm of Robots

This paper considers the problem of applying an adapted ant algorithm with an expanded set of additional sources of information for controlling a swarm of robots. It is shown that if the availability of additional sources of information regarding the possible location of the sources of the necessary resources is ignored, the time spent by a swarm of robots in search of this source is unreasonably overestimated. It is also shown that all possible additional sources of information can be divided into two groups: external sources of additional information and internal sources of additional information. With the help of computer simulation, the operability and efficiency of the proposed extended ant algorithm using additional sources of information is proven.