Optimization of plane steel truss structures using ant colony method

Optimization techniques based on artificial intelligence have been used for the solution of engineering problems for the last 30 years an increasing rapidly. Most of these algorithms have been developed by imitating a process in nature. In this study, ant colony algorithm developed by imitating the natural life of ants is considered. A new simplified ant colony algorithm has been proposed as an alternative to different ant colony algorithms used in the literature. Optimum design of plane truss structures has been realized using this algorithm. The appropriate values of optimum design parameters such as number of ants, pheromone update coefficient and penalty coefficient were investigated in this study. A computer program has been coded in "basic" coding language to make the necessary calculations, and the optimum design of some trusses from the literature has been performed. Although the algorithm used in the study has a simple formulation, it is seen that the results obtained are better than or close to the ones in the literature.