An Improved Image Steganography Security and Capacity Using Ant Colony Algorithm Optimization

This advanced paper presents a new approach to improving image steganography using the Ant Colony Optimization(ACO)algorithm.Image steganography,a technique of embedding hidden information in digital photographs,should ideally achieve the dual purposes of maximum data hiding and maintenance of the integrity of the cover media so that it is least suspect.The contemporary methods of steganography are at best a compromise between these two.In this paper,we present our approach,entitled Ant Colony Optimization(ACO)-Least Significant Bit(LSB),which attempts to optimize the capacity in steganographic embedding.The approach makes use of a grayscale cover image to hide the confidential data with an additional bit pair per byte,both for integrity verification and the file checksumof the secret data.This approach encodes confidential information into four pairs of bits and embeds it within uncompressed grayscale images.The ACO algorithm uses adaptive exploration to select some pixels,maximizing the capacity of data embedding whileminimizing the degradation of visual quality.Pheromone evaporation is introduced through iterations to avoid stagnation in solution refinement.The levels of pheromone are modified to reinforce successful pixel choices.Experimental results obtained through the ACO-LSB method reveal that it clearly improves image steganography capabilities by providing an increase of up to 30%in the embedding capacity compared with traditional approaches;the average Peak Signal to Noise Ratio(PSNR)is 40.5 dB with a Structural Index Similarity(SSIM)of 0.98.The approach also demonstrates very high resistance to detection,cutting down the rate by 20%.Implemented in MATLAB R2023a,the model was tested against one thousand publicly available grayscale images,thus providing robust evidence of its effectiveness.

Multi-Label Feature Selection Based on Improved Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm with Dynamic Redundancy and Label Dependence

The world produces vast quantities of high-dimensional multi-semantic data.However,extracting valuable information from such a large amount of high-dimensional and multi-label data is undoubtedly arduous and challenging.Feature selection aims to mitigate the adverse impacts of high dimensionality in multi-label data by eliminating redundant and irrelevant features.The ant colony optimization algorithm has demonstrated encouraging outcomes in multi-label feature selection,because of its simplicity,efficiency,and similarity to reinforcement learning.Nevertheless,existing methods do not consider crucial correlation information,such as dynamic redundancy and label correlation.To tackle these concerns,the paper proposes a multi-label feature selection technique based on ant colony optimization algorithm(MFACO),focusing on dynamic redundancy and label correlation.Initially,the dynamic redundancy is assessed between the selected feature subset and potential features.Meanwhile,the ant colony optimization algorithm extracts label correlation from the label set,which is then combined into the heuristic factor as label weights.Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed strategies can effectively enhance the optimal search ability of ant colony,outperforming the other algorithms involved in the paper.

An Effective Optimization Algorithm for Ant Colony Vehicular Congestion Management

Adaptability and dynamicity are special properties of social insects derived from the decentralized behavior of the insects. Authors have come up with designs for software solution that can regulate traffic congestion in a network transportation environment. The effectiveness of various researches on traffic management has been verified through appropriate metrics. Most of the traffic management systems are centered on using sensors, visual monitoring and neural networks to check for available parking space with the aim of informing drivers beforehand to prevent traffic congestion. There has been limited research on solving ongoing traffic congestion in congestion prone areas like car park with any of the common methods mentioned. This study focus however is on a motor park, as a highly congested area when it comes to traffic. The car park has two entrance gate and three exit gates which is divided into three Isle of parking lot where cars can park. An ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) was developed as an effective management system for controlling navigation and vehicular traffic congestion problems when cars exit a motor park. The ACO based on the nature and movement of the natural ants, simulates the movement of cars out of the car park through their nearest choice exit. A car park simulation was also used for the mathematical computation of the pheromone. The system was implemented using SIMD because of its dual parallelization ability. The result showed about 95% increase on the number of vehicles that left the motor park in one second. A clear indication that pheromones are large determinants of the shortest route to take as cars followed the closest exit to them. Future researchers may consider monitoring a centralized tally system for cars coming into the park through a censored gate being.

Bio-Inspired Intelligent Routing in WSN: Integrating Mayfly Optimization and Enhanced Ant Colony Optimization for Energy-Efficient Cluster Formation and Maintenance

Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs)are a collection of sensor nodes distributed in space and connected through wireless communication.The sensor nodes gather and store data about the real world around them.However,the nodes that are dependent on batteries will ultimately suffer an energy loss with time,which affects the lifetime of the network.This research proposes to achieve its primary goal by reducing energy consumption and increasing the network’s lifetime and stability.The present technique employs the hybrid Mayfly Optimization Algorithm-Enhanced Ant Colony Optimization(MFOA-EACO),where the Mayfly Optimization Algorithm(MFOA)is used to select the best cluster head(CH)from a set of nodes,and the Enhanced Ant Colony Optimization(EACO)technique is used to determine an optimal route between the cluster head and base station.The performance evaluation of our suggested hybrid approach is based on many parameters,including the number of active and dead nodes,node degree,distance,and energy usage.Our objective is to integrate MFOA-EACO to enhance energy efficiency and extend the network life of the WSN in the future.The proposed method outcomes proved to be better than traditional approaches such as Hybrid Squirrel-Flying Fox Optimization Algorithm(HSFLBOA),Hybrid Social Reindeer Optimization and Differential Evolution-Firefly Algorithm(HSRODE-FFA),Social Spider Distance Sensitive-Iterative Antlion Butterfly Cockroach Algorithm(SADSS-IABCA),and Energy Efficient Clustering Hierarchy Strategy-Improved Social Spider Algorithm Differential Evolution(EECHS-ISSADE).

Improved Ant Colony Algorithm for Vehicle Scheduling Problem in Airport Ground Service Support

Support vehicles are part of the main body of airport ground operations,and their scheduling efficiency directly impacts flight delays.A mathematical model is constructed and the responsiveness of support vehicles for current operational demands is proposed to study optimization algorithms for vehicle scheduling.The model is based on the constraint relationship of the initial operation time,time window,and gate position distribution,which gives an improvement to the ant colony algorithm(ACO).The impacts of the improved ACO as used for support vehicle optimization are compared and analyzed.The results show that the scheduling scheme of refueling trucks based on the improved ACO can reduce flight delays caused by refueling operations by 56.87%,indicating the improved ACO can improve support vehicle scheduling.Besides,the improved ACO can jump out of local optima,which can balance the working time of refueling trucks.This research optimizes the scheduling scheme of support vehicles under the existing conditions of airports,which has practical significance to fully utilize ground service resources,improve the efficiency of airport ground operations,and effectively reduce flight delays caused by ground service support.

MOALG: A Metaheuristic Hybrid of Multi-Objective Ant Lion Optimizer and Genetic Algorithm for Solving Design Problems

This study proposes a hybridization of two efficient algorithm’s Multi-objective Ant Lion Optimizer Algorithm(MOALO)which is a multi-objective enhanced version of the Ant Lion Optimizer Algorithm(ALO)and the Genetic Algorithm(GA).MOALO version has been employed to address those problems containing many objectives and an archive has been employed for retaining the non-dominated solutions.The uniqueness of the hybrid is that the operators like mutation and crossover of GA are employed in the archive to update the solutions and later those solutions go through the process of MOALO.A first-time hybrid of these algorithms is employed to solve multi-objective problems.The hybrid algorithm overcomes the limitation of ALO of getting caught in the local optimum and the requirement of more computational effort to converge GA.To evaluate the hybridized algorithm’s performance,a set of constrained,unconstrained test problems and engineering design problems were employed and compared with five well-known computational algorithms-MOALO,Multi-objective Crystal Structure Algorithm(MOCryStAl),Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization(MOPSO),Multi-objective Multiverse Optimization Algorithm(MOMVO),Multi-objective Salp Swarm Algorithm(MSSA).The outcomes of five performance metrics are statistically analyzed and the most efficient Pareto fronts comparison has been obtained.The proposed hybrid surpasses MOALO based on the results of hypervolume(HV),Spread,and Spacing.So primary objective of developing this hybrid approach has been achieved successfully.The proposed approach demonstrates superior performance on the test functions,showcasing robust convergence and comprehensive coverage that surpasses other existing algorithms.

Cooperative-Guided Ant Colony Optimization with Knowledge Learning for Job Shop Scheduling Problem

With the advancement of the manufacturing industry,the investigation of the shop floor scheduling problem has gained increasing importance.The Job shop Scheduling Problem(JSP),as a fundamental scheduling problem,holds considerable theoretical research value.However,finding a satisfactory solution within a given time is difficult due to the NP-hard nature of the JSP.A co-operative-guided ant colony optimization algorithm with knowledge learning(namely KLCACO)is proposed to address this difficulty.This algorithm integrates a data-based swarm intelligence optimization algorithm with model-based JSP schedule knowledge.A solution construction scheme based on scheduling knowledge learning is proposed for KLCACO.The problem model and algorithm data are fused by merging scheduling and planning knowledge with individual scheme construction to enhance the quality of the generated individual solutions.A pheromone guidance mechanism,which is based on a collaborative machine strategy,is used to simplify information learning and the problem space by collaborating with different machine processing orders.Additionally,the KLCACO algorithm utilizes the classical neighborhood structure to optimize the solution,expanding the search space of the algorithm and accelerating its convergence.The KLCACO algorithm is compared with other highperformance intelligent optimization algorithms on four public benchmark datasets,comprising 48 benchmark test cases in total.The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in addressing JSPs is validated,demonstrating the feasibility of the KLCACO algorithm for knowledge and data fusion in complex combinatorial optimization problems.

A Pre-Selection-Based Ant Colony System for Integrated Resources Scheduling Problem at Marine Container Terminal

Marine container terminal(MCT)plays a key role in the marine intelligent transportation system and international logistics system.However,the efficiency of resource scheduling significantly influences the operation performance of MCT.To solve the practical resource scheduling problem(RSP)in MCT efficiently,this paper has contributions to both the problem model and the algorithm design.Firstly,in the problem model,different from most of the existing studies that only consider scheduling part of the resources in MCT,we propose a unified mathematical model for formulating an integrated RSP.The new integrated RSP model allocates and schedules multiple MCT resources simultaneously by taking the total cost minimization as the objective.Secondly,in the algorithm design,a pre-selection-based ant colony system(PACS)approach is proposed based on graphic structure solution representation and a pre-selection strategy.On the one hand,as the RSP can be formulated as the shortest path problem on the directed complete graph,the graphic structure is proposed to represent the solution encoding to consider multiple constraints and multiple factors of the RSP,which effectively avoids the generation of infeasible solutions.On the other hand,the pre-selection strategy aims to reduce the computational burden of PACS and to fast obtain a higher-quality solution.To evaluate the performance of the proposed novel PACS in solving the new integrated RSP model,a set of test cases with different sizes is conducted.Experimental results and comparisons show the effectiveness and efficiency of the PACS algorithm,which can significantly outperform other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Hybrid Hierarchical Particle Swarm Optimization with Evolutionary Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Task Scheduling in Cloud Computing

Task scheduling plays a key role in effectively managing and allocating computing resources to meet various computing tasks in a cloud computing environment.Short execution time and low load imbalance may be the challenges for some algorithms in resource scheduling scenarios.In this work,the Hierarchical Particle Swarm Optimization-Evolutionary Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm(HPSO-EABC)has been proposed,which hybrids our presented Evolutionary Artificial Bee Colony(EABC),and Hierarchical Particle Swarm Optimization(HPSO)algorithm.The HPSO-EABC algorithm incorporates both the advantages of the HPSO and the EABC algorithm.Comprehensive testing including evaluations of algorithm convergence speed,resource execution time,load balancing,and operational costs has been done.The results indicate that the EABC algorithm exhibits greater parallelism compared to the Artificial Bee Colony algorithm.Compared with the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm,the HPSO algorithmnot only improves the global search capability but also effectively mitigates getting stuck in local optima.As a result,the hybrid HPSO-EABC algorithm demonstrates significant improvements in terms of stability and convergence speed.Moreover,it exhibits enhanced resource scheduling performance in both homogeneous and heterogeneous environments,effectively reducing execution time and cost,which also is verified by the ablation experimental.

Optimal Location and Sizing ofMulti-Resource Distributed Generator Based onMulti-Objective Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Distribution generation(DG)technology based on a variety of renewable energy technologies has developed rapidly.A large number of multi-type DG are connected to the distribution network(DN),resulting in a decline in the stability of DN operation.It is urgent to find a method that can effectively connect multi-energy DG to DN.photovoltaic(PV),wind power generation(WPG),fuel cell(FC),and micro gas turbine(MGT)are considered in this paper.A multi-objective optimization model was established based on the life cycle cost(LCC)of DG,voltage quality,voltage fluctuation,system network loss,power deviation of the tie-line,DG pollution emission index,and meteorological index weight of DN.Multi-objective artificial bee colony algorithm(MOABC)was used to determine the optimal location and capacity of the four kinds of DG access DN,and compared with the other three heuristic algorithms.Simulation tests based on IEEE 33 test node and IEEE 69 test node show that in IEEE 33 test node,the total voltage deviation,voltage fluctuation,and system network loss of DN decreased by 49.67%,7.47%and 48.12%,respectively,compared with that without DG configuration.In the IEEE 69 test node,the total voltage deviation,voltage fluctuation and system network loss of DN in the MOABC configuration scheme decreased by 54.98%,35.93%and 75.17%,respectively,compared with that without DG configuration,indicating that MOABC can reasonably plan the capacity and location of DG.Achieve the maximum trade-off between DG economy and DN operation stability.

A Distributed Ant Colony Optimization Applied in Edge Detection

With the rise of image data and increased complexity of tasks in edge detection, conventional artificial intelligence techniques have been severely impacted. To be able to solve even greater problems of the future, learning algorithms must maintain high speed and accuracy through economical means. Traditional edge detection approaches cannot detect edges in images in a timely manner due to memory and computational time constraints. In this work, a novel parallelized ant colony optimization technique in a distributed framework provided by the Hadoop/Map-Reduce infrastructure is proposed to improve the edge detection capabilities. Moreover, a filtering technique is applied to reduce the noisy background of images to achieve significant improvement in the accuracy of edge detection. Close examinations of the implementation of the proposed algorithm are discussed and demonstrated through experiments. Results reveal high classification accuracy and significant improvements in speedup, scaleup and sizeup compared to the standard algorithms.

A Drone-Based Blood Donation Approach Using an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

This article presents an optimized approach of mathematical techniques in themedical domain by manoeuvring the phenomenon of ant colony optimization algorithm(also known as ACO).A complete graph of blood banks and a path that covers all the blood banks without repeating any link is required by applying the Travelling Salesman Problem(often TSP).The wide use promises to accelerate and offers the opportunity to cultivate health care,particularly in remote or unmerited environments by shrinking lab testing reversal times,empowering just-in-time lifesaving medical supply.

Security Test Case Prioritization through Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

Security testing is a critical concern for organizations worldwide due to the potential financial setbacks and damage to reputation caused by insecure software systems.One of the challenges in software security testing is test case prioritization,which aims to reduce redundancy in fault occurrences when executing test suites.By effectively applying test case prioritization,both the time and cost required for developing secure software can be reduced.This paper proposes a test case prioritization technique based on the Ant Colony Optimization(ACO)algorithm,a metaheuristic approach.The performance of the ACO-based technique is evaluated using the Average Percentage of Fault Detection(APFD)metric,comparing it with traditional techniques.It has been applied to a Mobile Payment Wallet application to validate the proposed approach.The results demonstrate that the proposed technique outperforms the traditional techniques in terms of the APFD metric.The ACO-based technique achieves an APFD of approximately 76%,two percent higher than the second-best optimal ordering technique.These findings suggest that metaheuristic-based prioritization techniques can effectively identify the best test cases,saving time and improving software security overall.

A developed ant colony algorithm for cancer molecular subtype classification to reveal the predictive biomarker in the renal cell carcinoma

Background:Recently,researchers have been attracted in identifying the crucial genes related to cancer,which plays important role in cancer diagnosis and treatment.However,in performing the cancer molecular subtype classification task from cancer gene expression data,it is challenging to obtain those significant genes due to the high dimensionality and high noise of data.Moreover,the existing methods always suffer from some issues such as premature convergence.Methods:To address those problems,we propose a new ant colony optimization(ACO)algorithm called DACO to classify the cancer gene expression datasets,identifying the essential genes of different diseases.In DACO,first,we propose the initial pheromone concentration based on the weight ranking vector to accelerate the convergence speed;then,a dynamic pheromone volatility factor is designed to prevent the algorithm from getting stuck in the local optimal solution;finally,the pheromone update rule in the Ant Colony System is employed to update the pheromone globally and locally.To demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm in classification,different existing approaches are compared with the proposed algorithm on eight high-dimensional cancer gene expression datasets.Results:The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than other effective methods in terms of classification accuracy and the number of feature sets.It can be used to address the classification problem effectively.Moreover,a renal cell carcinoma dataset is employed to reveal the biological significance of the proposed algorithm from a number of biological analyses.Conclusion:The results demonstrate that CAPS may play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of renal clear cell carcinoma.

Path Planning of UAV by Combing Improved Ant Colony System and Dynamic Window Algorithm

A fusion algorithm is proposed to enhance the search speed of an ant colony system(ACS)for the global path planning and overcome the challenges of the local path planning in an unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV).The ACS search efficiency is enhanced by adopting a 16-direction 24-neighborhood search way,a safety grid search way,and an elite hybrid strategy to accelerate global convergence.Quadratic planning is performed using the moving average(MA)method.The fusion algorithm incorporates a dynamic window approach(DWA)to deal with the local path planning,sets a retracement mechanism,and adjusts the evaluation function accordingly.Experimental results in two environments demonstrate that the improved ant colony system(IACS)achieves superior planning efficiency.Additionally,the optimized dynamic window approach(ODWA)demonstrates its ability to handle multiple dynamic situations.Overall,the fusion optimization algorithm can accomplish the mixed path planning effectively.

Research on Grid Planning of Dual Power Distribution Network Based on Parallel Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

A distribution network plays an extremely important role in the safe and efficient operation of a power grid.As the core part of a power grid’s operation,a distribution network will have a significant impact on the safety and reliability of residential electricity consumption.it is necessary to actively plan and modify the distribution network’s structure in the power grid,improve the quality of the distribution network,and optimize the planning of the distribution network,so that the network can be fully utilized to meet the needs of electricity consumption.In this paper,a distribution network grid planning algorithm based on the reliability of electricity consumption was completed using ant colony algorithm.For the distribution network structure planning of dual power sources,the parallel ant colony algorithm was used to prove that the premise of parallelism is the interactive process of ant colonies,and the dual power distribution network structure model is established based on the principle of the lowest cost.The artificial ants in the algorithm were compared with real ants in nature,and the basic steps and working principle of the ant colony optimization algorithm was studied with the help of the travelling salesman problem(TSP).Then,the limitations of the ant colony algorithm were analyzed,and an improvement strategy was proposed by using python for digital simulation.The results demonstrated the reliability of model-building and algorithm improvement.

A novel speech emotion recognition algorithm based on combination of emotion data field and ant colony search strategy

In order to effectively conduct emotion recognition from spontaneous, non-prototypical and unsegmented speech so as to create a more natural human-machine interaction; a novel speech emotion recognition algorithm based on the combination of the emotional data field （EDF） and the ant colony search （ACS） strategy, called the EDF-ACS algorithm, is proposed. More specifically, the inter- relationship among the turn-based acoustic feature vectors of different labels are established by using the potential function in the EDF. To perform the spontaneous speech emotion recognition, the artificial colony is used to mimic the turn- based acoustic feature vectors. Then, the canonical ACS strategy is used to investigate the movement direction of each artificial ant in the EDF, which is regarded as the emotional label of the corresponding turn-based acoustic feature vector. The proposed EDF-ACS algorithm is evaluated on the continueous audio）＇visual emotion challenge （AVEC） 2012 dataset, which contains the spontaneous, non-prototypical and unsegmented speech emotion data. The experimental results show that the proposed EDF-ACS algorithm outperforms the existing state-of-the-art algorithm in turn-based speech emotion recognition.

Feature Extraction of Stored-grain Insects Based on Ant Colony Optimization and Support Vector Machine Algorithm

[Objective] The aim was to study the feature extraction of stored-grain insects based on ant colony optimization and support vector machine algorithm, and to explore the feasibility of the feature extraction of stored-grain insects. [Method] Through the analysis of feature extraction in the image recognition of the stored-grain insects, the recognition accuracy of the cross-validation training model in support vector machine （SVM） algorithm was taken as an important factor of the evaluation principle of feature extraction of stored-grain insects. The ant colony optimization （ACO） algorithm was applied to the automatic feature extraction of stored-grain insects. [Result] The algorithm extracted the optimal feature subspace of seven features from the 17 morphological features, including area and perimeter. The ninety image samples of the stored-grain insects were automatically recognized by the optimized SVM classifier, and the recognition accuracy was over 95%. [Conclusion] The experiment shows that the application of ant colony optimization to the feature extraction of grain insects is practical and feasible.

C-means-based ant colony algorithm for TSP

To solve the traveling salesman problem with the characteristics of clustering,a novel hybrid algorithm,the ant colony algorithm combined with the C-means algorithm,is presented.In order to improve the speed of convergence,the traveling salesman problem(TSP)data is specially clustered by the C-means algorithm,then,the result is processed by the ant colony algorithm to solve the problem.The proposed algorithm treats the C-means algorithm as a new search operator and adopts a kind of local searching strategy—2-opt,so as to improve the searching performance.Given the cluster number,the algorithm can obtain the preferable solving result.Compared with the three other algorithms—the ant colony algorithm,the genetic algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm,the proposed algorithm can make the results converge to the global optimum faster and it has higher accuracy.The algorithm can also be extended to solve other correlative clustering combination optimization problems.Experimental results indicate the validity of the proposed algorithm.

The improved artificial bee colony algorithm for mixed additive and multiplicative random error model and the bootstrap method for its precision estimation

To solve the complex weight matrix derivative problem when using the weighted least squares method to estimate the parameters of the mixed additive and multiplicative random error model(MAM error model),we use an improved artificial bee colony algorithm without derivative and the bootstrap method to estimate the parameters and evaluate the accuracy of MAM error model.The improved artificial bee colony algorithm can update individuals in multiple dimensions and improve the cooperation ability between individuals by constructing a new search equation based on the idea of quasi-affine transformation.The experimental results show that based on the weighted least squares criterion,the algorithm can get the results consistent with the weighted least squares method without multiple formula derivation.The parameter estimation and accuracy evaluation method based on the bootstrap method can get better parameter estimation and more reasonable accuracy information than existing methods,which provides a new idea for the theory of parameter estimation and accuracy evaluation of the MAM error model.