Borrowing from Ants: Algorithms for Emergency Evacuations

Presenter: Robert Heckendorn, Assoc. Professor of Computer Science, University of Idaho

Abstract: Ants are not just a pile of insects. They work in a coordinated fashion to solve problems. How is this possible? Can we use some of the techniques that ants use to solve problems of coordination between thousands of independent actors? We examine the problem of the evacuation of urban areas as a model problem. We speculate on the use of ant based algorithms as a way to efficiently and adaptively evacuate urban areas in times of natural or man-made disasters.