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Nature Research, Scientific Reports, 1(5), 2015

DOI: 10.1038/srep10794

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A Biologically Inspired Network Design Model

Journal article published in 2015 by Xiaoge Zhang, Andrew Adamatzky, Felix T. S. Chan ORCID, Yong Deng, Hai Yang, Xin-She Yang, Michail-Antisthenis I. Tsompanas, Georgios C.-H. Sirakoulis ORCID, Sankaran Mahadevan
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractA network design problem is to select a subset of links in a transport network that satisfy passengers or cargo transportation demands while minimizing the overall costs of the transportation. We propose a mathematical model of the foraging behaviour of slime mould P. polycephalum to solve the network design problem and construct optimal transport networks. In our algorithm, a traffic flow between any two cities is estimated using a gravity model. The flow is imitated by the model of the slime mould. The algorithm model converges to a steady state, which represents a solution of the problem. We validate our approach on examples of major transport networks in Mexico and China. By comparing networks developed in our approach with the man-made highways, networks developed by the slime mould and a cellular automata model inspired by slime mould, we demonstrate the flexibility and efficiency of our approach.