German website

1. version (v1.0):

project term: SS 2007

software project for bachelor study course in media computer science

project group: Bjarne Großmann, Mario Rauschenberg, Clemens Wuth

2. version (v2.0):

project term: February - April 2012

supplement work for course Applications of Artificial Intelligence

project group: Christoph Kröger, Nikolas Reichardt, Lennart Steffin

An ant simulation system according to the pheromone-based AntNet procedure had to be implemented.

The implementation had to provide a graphical user interface in which a landscape with mountains and valleys, ant nests and food places could be modelled. A continuous simulation system should visualize the emerging ant roads.

The program was implemented in Java.

The provided simulation tool has a fully graphical user interface in which it is possible to model different elevation levels of the landscape. The simulator and the viewing options can be configured by various parameters. The simulation enables the user to spawn different numbers of ants continuously from their respective nests and to visualize cluster of ants as moving points.

During simulation it is possible to change elevations at arbitrary times. This makes it possible to install new barriers or to remove old ones. The system continuously adapts to the respective new situation. This demonstrates the adaptivity of pheromone-based systems to dynamic unexpected changes.

Here you can download a zip file providing the program of v1.0 and an English documentation. Get yourself insight how flexible pheromone-based approaches work:

Build nests and lay out food for the ants. Start the ant traffic. You may change landscape, nests and food continuously during simulation. Watch yourself how fast the ants adapt to the new situation.

Here you can download a zip file providing the program for v2.0 and a German documentation: The user interface was tuned up in a graphically much more appealing way, and the user functionality was simplified. Further, some bugs of v1.0 were fixed. For proper functionality make sure to keep the specified folder structure and data. Execute the jar file only.

System requirement: Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or higher. The graphic solution is optimized for Windows.