Ant search on large maps to find wide paths

The ant search is usually used in (ANTS 2002) for solving problems like the traveling salesman problem (TSP), where all the points of the search graph can be destinations and the edges between them represent the ways with the appropriate weights. In this article we describe a modification of the ant search for another goal: we search for "wide paths", where most of the graph points won't be targets, only small parts of the path we are looking for. The paths found by the algorithm consist of multiple alternative routes near each other without relevant difference in length (or cost). (The result looks like a wide path on a topographical map.) This leads to a loosely defined path, which is very useful, because obstacle avoidance maneuvers can be completed without leaving the path itself. This means that the AI doesn't have to worry about getting back on the route, which would need additional searches. Using the method of the ants this way leads to a very different search type (in search space handling and in result as well), than the approaches mentioned above. A further advantage of the algorithm is that it provides further information about the search space in connection with traffic load. In this aspect, (Marc Reimann) simulates transportation and traffic load, which is partly similar to this case, but still differs in the concept of the search space.