"A Pheromone Based Ant Foraging Simulation Teaching Tool"

Supervised by A.Sharkey

Abstract

The aim of this project is to create a piece of software for use by the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences as a teaching aid. It is meant to be used for the teaching of emergent behaviour in the collection of food by ants. The ant model the software is based upon is that of a trail based foraging system. This involves the ants communicating with each other as to the location of food by secreting a trail of scent (pheromone) from a food source. This scent can be recognised by other ants, who can then follow it to the food source. This communication method should give rise to an illustration of the emergent behaviour exhibited by these insects in nature. Also by allowing the user to alter aspects of the system, such as the rate at which the trail dissipates, an understanding of the delicate balance that is required for such behaviour to work effectively can be gained.

In this project this premise is further expanded and a system is designed to model the movement of the ants. This approach resulted in some success towards the creation of a system that goes some way to implementing the requirements for the model of the system. It however does not extend to the full implementation of the system in that the system has no graphical interface. However areas in which the project could be expanded in the future are explored.