A biologically inspired solution for fuzzy shortest path problems

  • Authors:

  • Yajuan Zhang;Zili Zhang;Yong Deng;Sankaran Mahadevan

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China;School of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China and School of Information Technology, Deakin University, VIC 3271, Australia;School of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China and School of Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA;School of Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA

  • Venue:
  • Applied Soft Computing
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

By considering the uncertainty that exists in the edge weights of the network, fuzzy shortest path problems, as one of the derivative problems of shortest path problems, emerge from various practical applications in different areas. A path finding model, inspired by an amoeboid organism, Physarum polycephalum, has been shown as an effective approach for deterministic shortest path problems. In this paper, a biologically inspired algorithm called Fuzzy Physarum Algorithm (FPA) is proposed for fuzzy shortest path problems. FPA is developed based on the path finding model, while utilizing fuzzy arithmetic and fuzzy distance to deal with fuzzy issues. As a result, FPA can represent and handle the fuzzy shortest path problem flexibly and effectively. Distinct from many existing methods, no order relation has been assumed in the proposed FPA. Several examples, including a tourist problem, are given to illustrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed method and the results are compared with existing methods.