Ant-Q is an algorithm belonging to the class of ant colony based methods, that is, of combinatorial optimization methods in which a set of simple agents, called ants, cooperate to find good solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. The main focus of this article is on the experimental study of the sensitivity of the Ant-Q algorithm to its parameters and on the investigation of synergistic effects when using more than a single ant. We conclude comparing Ant-Q with its ancestor Ant System, and with other heuristic algorithms.
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