September 12-14, 2012. Brussels, Belgium

Call for papers prepared on October 4, 2011. More details and up-to-date information at http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ants2012.

Important Dates

Submission deadline           March 2, 2012

Notification of acceptance    May 3, 2012

Camera ready copy             May 17, 2012

Conference                    September 12-14, 2012

Scope of the Conference

Swarm intelligence is a relatively new discipline that deals with the study of self-organizing processes both in nature and in artificial systems. Researchers in ethology and animal behavior have proposed many models to explain interesting aspects of social insect behavior such as self-organization and shape-formation. Recently, algorithms and methods inspired by these models have been proposed to solve difficult problems in many domains.

An example of a particularly successful research direction in swarm intelligence is ant colony optimization, the main focus of which is on discrete optimization problems. Ant colony optimization has been applied successfully to a large number of difficult discrete optimization problems including the traveling salesman problem, the quadratic assignment problem, scheduling, vehicle routing, etc., as well as to routing in telecommunication networks. Another interesting approach is that of particle swarm optimization, that focuses on continuous optimization problems. Here too, a number of successful applications can be found in the recent literature.  Swarm robotics is another relevant field. Here, the focus is on applying swarm intelligence techniques to the control of large groups of cooperating autonomous robots.

ANTS 2012 will give researchers in swarm intelligence the opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to discuss current developments and applications.

The three-day conference will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on September 12-14, 2012.

Relevant Research Areas

ANTS 2012 solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm intelligence. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:

• Behavioral models of social insects or other animal societies that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches.
• Empirical and theoretical research in swarm intelligence.
• Application of swarm intelligence methods, such as ant colony optimization or particle swarm optimization, to real-world problems.
• Theoretical and experimental research in swarm robotics systems.

Publication Details

Conference proceedings will be published by Springer in the LNCS series.

The journal Swarm Intelligence will publish a special issue dedicated to ANTS 2012 that will contain extended versions of the best research works presented at the conference. Further details will soon be published on the web site.

Best Paper Award

A best paper award will be presented at the conference.

Further Information

Up-to-date information will be published on the web site http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ants2012/. For information about local arrangements, registration forms, etc., please refer to the above-mentioned web site or contact the local organizers at the address below.

Conference Address

ANTS 2012 - IRIDIA CP 194/6, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Av. F. D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.

Tel: +32-2-6502729

Fax: +32-2-6502715

Website: http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ants2012

Email: ants@iridia.ulb.ac.be

ANTS 2012 Organizing Committee

General Chair:

Marco Dorigo, IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium

Technical Program Chairs:

Christian Blum, ALBCOM, LSI, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Andries Engelbrecht, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Roderich Groß, Sheffield University, UK

Publication Chair:

Anders Lyhne Christensen, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Portugal

Organization Chairs:

Mauro Birattari, IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium

Thomas Stützle, IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium

Local Arrangements:

Andreagiovanni Reina, IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium

Arne Brutschy, IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium