Fuzzy Ant Colony Algorithm for Terrain Following Optimization

Ant colony optimization is a class of swarm intelligence algorithms used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. Fuzzy ant colony optimization adds fuzzy logic to combine heuristic data used in the algorithm. In this paper, a fuzzy ant colony algorithm is applied to a class of path planning known as terrain following optimization. Terrain following optimization attempts to find paths through which terrain can be used to avoid line of sight based detection. The algorithm is tested against both controlled test cases and real world terrain. The results show the algorithm effectively balances terrain masking and path length to create flyable terrain masking paths.