KSU Award 2007

FED Mentoring Press Release 2006

Beacon Journal-Swarm intelligence The next generation of technology is modeled on insects

 

CJN- Local firm has 'high hopes' for its ant-based research

  News Herald-
Follow Those Ants
  Bluetronix Wins PTAC "Regional Star" Award for Ohio.
 
  Sensor Networks Make Early Inroads
  Ad Hoc Networks
 

Understanding Ad Hoc Mode

  Wireless Mobility a Key Advance
  Founder's Bio
 
Bluetronix, Inc.
35 River Street
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
440.247.3434
innovation@bluetronix.net

Press Release

Kent State University (KSU) Award 2007 [image][text]

FED Mentoring Press Releases 2006 [pdf]

Cleveland, OH August 3, 2003 -
Bluetronix Awarded $750K to Improve Wireless Communications Using Swarm Intelligence.

Will ants lead the march towards future advances in wireless communications technology? The Military may believe so. Bluetronix, Inc. was recently awarded by the Defense Department a $750K SBIR Phase 2 contract for the development of a Mobile Intelligent Routers using swarm intelligence for mobile ad-hoc network applications. The unique thrust of their research involves developing and applying swarm intelligence algorithms designed by Bluetronix to find optimized routing solutions in wireless military ad-hoc networks.

"Using swarm intelligence is a radical shift from the conventional method of information transmission. Centralized control is moved to decentralized control and distributed intelligence. The main advantages of a network using this routing approach are enhanced efficiency, increased robustness, and scalability up to hundreds of thousands of nodes. Also they would be potentially less susceptible to break downs and glitches by using emergent spontaneous self-organizing strategies and tactics," replies Bluetronix President Mark Heiferling.

Biologically inspired algorithms such as swarm originated with the study of ant colonies. A colony of ants finds new food sources by sending out foragers who explore the surroundings more or less at random. If it finds food, a forager will return to the colony, laying a pheromone trail as it goes - a trail that other ants can use to follow back to the food.

A successful forager does not know the most direct way back to the colony, and there is a risk that it may send its colleagues on a circuitous route to the food. Another forager might subsequently find a better route - but how would others know to take it in preference? Shorter trails are more regularly refreshed with new pheromone, and are more likely to stay marked than long trails. In this way, the ants have the ability to select the best route through stigmergy, their own indirect communications.

Potential applications of this research reach beyond the battlefield. Swarm intelligence can help businesses find solutions to problems that elude ordinary top-down analysis. For example, how the late arrival of a single package can derail an entire supply chain, or why adding a lane to a highway can often worsen traffic jams. Southwest Airlines has used swarm to develop a more efficient model of cargo handling, saving the company $2 million a year in labor costs. Heiferling says the firm is currently analyzing potential markets that have great potential.

Bluetronix is developing many wireless innovations and intelligent computing over the last several years using swarm intelligence. For example, the firm created wireless solutions for rural areas by providing router-to-router interconnectivity via swarm. Bluetronix is developing hardware miniaturization with this technology for wireless networks on Warfighters for the Air Force.

 

 

   
     
     
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