"So ant algorithms have to be simple, distributed and scalable - the very qualities that we need in large engineered sitributed systems," she said.

"Ant algorithms are used in robotics, for example for optimizing manufacturing processes, but we have now transferred the trick to drug discovery," says Schneider.

Wenrui Zhang, Application of an Improved Ant Colony Algorithm in Coastal Tourism Route Optimization, Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 98: Recent Developments in Practices and Research on ...

So ant algorithms have to be simple, distributed and scalable – the very qualities that we need in large engineered distributed systems.

The biologist Deborah Gordon has uncovered how ant colonies search efficiently without central organization, an insight that might improve computer networks. Ants are capable of remarkable feats of ...

An analysis of ant colony behavior could yield better algorithms for network communication, say investigators. Biologists have long suspected that ants base their population-density estimates on ...