Bee Colony Optimization: Principles and Applications

The bee colony optimization metaheuristic (BCO) is proposed in the paper. The BCO represents the new metaheuristic capable to solve difficult combinatorial optimization problems. The artificial bee colony behaves partially alike, and partially differently from bee colonies in nature. In addition to proposing the BCO as a new metaheuristic, we also describe in the paper two BCO algorithms that we call the bee system (BS) and the fuzzy bee system (FBS). In the case of FBS the agents (artificial bees) use approximate reasoning and rules of fuzzy logic in their communication and acting. In this way, the FBS is capable to solve deterministic combinatorial problems, as well as combinatorial problems characterized by uncertainty. The proposed approach is illustrated by three case studies