A review: On using ACO based hybrid algorithms for path planning of Multi-Mobile Robotics

The path planning for Multi Mobile Robotic (MMR) system is a recent combinatorial optimisation problem. In the last decade, many researches have been published to solve this problem. Most of these researches focused on metaheuristic algorithms. This paper reviews articles on Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) and its hybrid versions to solve the problem. The original Dorigo’s ACO algorithm uses exploration and exploitation phases to find the shortest route in a combinatorial optimisation problem in general without touching mapping, localisation and perception. Due to the properties of MMR, adaptations have been made to ACO algorithms. In this review paper, a literature survey of the recent studies on upgrading, modifications and applications of the ACO algorithms has been discussed to evaluate the application of the different versions of ACO in the MMR domain. The evaluation considered the quality, speed of convergence, robustness, scalability, flexibility of MMR and obstacle avoidance, static and dynamic environment characteristics of the tasks.