SHES 2402 ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

TUTORIAL 3

1. Use Conway’s Rules to find the patterns in the first five generations,
starting from an inital pattern of a single row of 10 occupied cells.

2. In the ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithm, there are several possible
functions that we can use to model the evaporation of pheromones left by an
ant on the trail. Let f (t) be the concentration of pheromone that remains
on the trail after time t;
a) f (t) = e−t .
b) f (t) = 1.
1
c) f (t) = (1+t) 5.

Discuss which function is most suitable for modelling evaporation rate in

an ACO.

3. Another set of data from Barlow, Moller and Beggs (1996) from a different
site shows that the nests per hectare for Vespula vulgaris is

1.0, 1.9, 6.0, 1.0, 1.0

from 1988 to 1992. An ecologists dismisses the outlier 6.0 in 1990 as an

anomaly, and concludes that in the future the wasp population at that site
should stablise at around 1.6 nests per hectare. Attack the rationale of
his conclusion by using the Ricker model as an example. You can use any
software that you know to estimate the r and k parameters in the Ricker
model.

KTF 2009/2010(2)