Letting Ants Labeling Point Features

This paper describes an ant colony system (ACS) for labeling point features. A preprocessing step reduces the search space in a safe way. The ACS applies local improvement and masking, a technique that focuses the optimization on criti- cal regions. Empirical results indicate that the ACS reliably iden- tifies high-quality solutions which are in many cases better than those of a state-of-the-art genetic algorithm for point feature la- beling.

[1]  Joe Marks,et al.  An empirical study of algorithms for point-feature label placement , 1995, TOGS.

[2]  Marco Dorigo,et al.  New Ideas in Optimisation , 1999 .

[3]  Stuart M. Shieber,et al.  Placing Text Labels on Maps and Diagrams , 1994, Graphics Gems.

[4]  E. Imhof Positioning Names on Maps , 1975 .

[5]  Luca Maria Gambardella,et al.  Ant Algorithms for Discrete Optimization , 1999, Artificial Life.

[6]  Petra Mutzel,et al.  Optimal Labelling of Point Features in the Slider Model , 2000, COCOON.

[7]  Pinhas Yoeli,et al.  The Logic of Automated Map Lettering , 1972 .

[8]  Stephen A. Hirsch,et al.  An Algorithm for Automatic Name Placement Around Point Data , 1982 .

[9]  Günther R. Raidl,et al.  A Genetic Algorithm for Labeling Point Features , 2003 .

[10]  Frank Wagner,et al.  A packing problem with applications to lettering of maps , 1991, SCG '91.

[11]  Joe Marks,et al.  The Computational Complexity of Cartographic Label Placement , 1991 .

[12]  J. Deneubourg,et al.  Trails and U-turns in the Selection of a Path by the Ant Lasius niger , 1992 .

[13]  Roger L. Wainwright,et al.  Placing Text Labels an Maps and Diagrams using Genetic Algorithms with Masking , 1997, INFORMS J. Comput..

[14]  Luca Maria Gambardella,et al.  Ant colony system: a cooperative learning approach to the traveling salesman problem , 1997, IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput..

[15]  Joe Marks,et al.  A General Cartographic Labeling Algorithm , 1996 .

[16]  Steven Zoraster,et al.  The Solution of Large 0-1 Integer Programming Problems Encountered in Automated Cartography , 1990, Oper. Res..

[17]  Herbert Freeman,et al.  A rule-based system for dense-map name placement , 1992, CACM.