Student Challenge
Swarm Intelligence Student Program Challenge
Dr Rod Goodman. Distinguished Professor of Practice.
School of Engineering, Computing, and Mathematics.
College of Charleston.
Prize: $250
Dead Ant Clustering Deadline for Submissions 12noon. 31 March 2026.
Write a program (algorithm) to collect dead ants into a pile!
Student Challenge
Swarm Intelligence Student Program Challenge
Dr Rod Goodman. Distinguished Professor of Practice.
School of Engineering, Computing, and Mathematics.
College of Charleston.
Prize: $250
Dead Ant Clustering Deadline for Submissions 12noon. 31 March 2026.
Write a program (algorithm) to collect dead ants into a pile!
You may work alone or in teams. You may use AI.
You may work alone or in teams. You may use AI.
You may work alone or in teams. You may use AI.
Must have graphics (simple 2D plot to Realistic Games!).
Must have graphics (simple 2D plot to Realistic Games!)
Must have graphics (simple 2D plot to Realistic Games!)
Local interactions only! (e.g. live ants tell live from dead by pheromone smell).
Local interactions only! (e.g. live ants tell live from dead by pheromone smell).
Local interactions only! (e.g. live ants tell live from dead by pheromone smell).
Cannot pre-define a Midden “area” – the pile has to emerge from local interactions.
Cannot pre-define a Midden “area” – the pile has to emerge from local interactions.
Cannot pre-define a Midden “area” – the pile has to emerge from local interactions.
Live ants could leave pheromone trails (must decay in time).
You may work alone or in teams. You may use AI.
You may work alone or in teams. You may use AI.
Define a smallest “time tick” – e.g. ant moves 1 bodylength in one tick.
Must have graphics (simple 2D plot to Realistic Games!)
Must have graphics (simple 2D plot to Realistic Games!)
Smallest number of time ticks per dead ant per live ant to collect all dead ants into a pile wins!!
Local interactions only! (e.g. live ants tell live from dead by pheromone smell).
Local interactions only! (e.g. live ants tell live from dead by pheromone smell).
Martinoli A., Ijspeert A., and MondadaF. ,Understanding Collective Agregation Mechanisms: From Probabilistic Modeling to Experiments with Real Robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 29:51-63,1999 Kazadi S., Abdul-Khaliq A., Goodman R., On the Convergence of Puck Clustering Systems. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 38 (2), pp. 93-117, 2002.