New book on Swarm Intelligence

[Marco DORIGO]

Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems.
Bonabeau E., M. Dorigo & G. Theraulaz (1999).
New York: Oxford University Press.

The book "Swarm Intelligence" provides a detailed look at models of
social insect behavior and how to apply these models in the design of
complex systems. In the book it is shown how these models replace an
emphasis on control, preprogramming, and centralization with designs
featuring autonomy, emergence, and distributed functioning.  These
designs are proving flexible and robust, able to adapt quickly to
changing environments and to continue functioning even when individual
elements fail. In particular, these designs are a novel approach to
the tremendous growth of complexity in software and information. The
book draws on up-to-date research from biology, neuroscience,
artificial intelligence, robotics, operations research, and computer
graphics, and each chapter is organized around a particular biological
example, which is then used to develop an algorithm, a mutiagent
systems, or a group of robots.


Contents :
1.  Introduction
2.  Ant Foraging Behavior, Combinatorial Optimization, and Routing in Communication Networks
3.  Division of Labor and Task Allocation
4.  Cemetery Organization, Brood Sorting, Data Analysis, and Graph Partitioning
5.  Self-Organization and Templates: Application to Data Analysis and Graph Partitioning
6.  Nest Building and Self-Assembling
7.  Cooperative Transport by Insects and Robots
8.  Epilogue


Information on how to order the book is available at: http://www.oup-usa.org/