Ant-based Clustering Algorithms: A Brief Survey

Ant-based clustering is a biologically inspired data clustering technique. Clustering task aims at the unsupervised classification of patterns in different groups. Clustering problem has been approached from different disciplines during last years. In recent years, many algorithms have been developed for solving numerical and combinatorial optimization problems. Most promising among them are swarm intelligence algorithms. Clustering with swarm-based algorithms is emerging as an alternative to more conventional clustering techniques. These algorithms have recently been shown to produce good results in a wide variety of real-world applications. During the last five years, research on and with the ant-based clustering algorithms has reached a very promising state. In this paper, a brief survey on ant-based clustering algorithms is described. We also present some applications of ant-based clustering algorithms.