A first approach to study the effects of direct information exchange between agents in ant-based clustering

This paper presents a first approach to study direct information exchange between agents in ant-based clustering by comparing the clustering process development generated by agents that maintain a short-term memory against the one generated by agents that share their memory with their peers whenever an encounter occurs on the environment. The information exchange can allow an agent to “change its mind” regarding the most favorable dropping location on the grid, based on the knowledge of another agent. Our experimental evidence shows that this simple information exchange strategy improves the quality of the resultant clustering. This holds true, however, only for a small number of agents. This suggests that there is a critical number of agents that can exchange information, that when surpassed, the effects could even be detrimental.