title: All-Optical Implementation of the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm.
abstract: We report all-optical implementation of the optimization algorithm for the famous "ant colony" problem. Ant colonies progressively optimize pathway to food discovered by one of the ants through identifying the discovered route with volatile chemicals (pheromones) secreted on the way back from the food deposit. Mathematically this is an important example of graph optimization problem with dynamically changing parameters. Using an optical network with nonlinear waveguides to represent the graph and a feedback loop, we experimentally show that photons traveling through the network behave like ants that dynamically modify the environment to find the shortest pathway to any chosen point in the graph. This proof-of-principle demonstration illustrates how transient nonlinearity in the optical system can be exploited to tackle complex optimization problems directly, on the hardware level, which may be used for self-routing of optical signals in transparent communication networks and energy flow in photonic systems.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, TPI, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.|School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, SINGAPORE.
authors.forename: Wenchao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, China.
authors.forename: Kan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, TPI, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.|School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, SINGAPORE.
authors.forename: Perry Ping
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Shum
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, TPI, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.|Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
authors.forename: Nikolay I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Zheludev
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, TPI, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soci
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D055100:Optical Fibers; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones