Call for Papers: 12th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence
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ANTS 2020
12th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence
October 26-28, 2020. Barcelona
Up-to-date information at http://www.swarm-intelligence.eu/ants2020/
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Scope of the Conference
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Swarm intelligence is the discipline that deals with the study of self-organizing processes both in nature and in artificial systems. Researchers in ethology and animal behavior have proposed a number of models to explain interesting aspects of collective behaviors such as movement coordination, shape-formation or decision making. Recently, algorithms and methods inspired by these models have been proposed to solve difficult problems in many domains. Among these, it is worth mentioning ant colony optimization (ACO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), focusing respectively on discrete and continuous optimisation problems. Also, Swarm robotics represents another field of techniques derived from swarm intelligence for the design of collaborative multi-robot systems featuring enhanced efficiency, robustness and scalability. ANTS 2020 aims to give researchers in swarm intelligence the opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to discuss current developments and applications. The three-day conference will be held for the first time in Barcelona, on October 26–28, 2020.


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Relevant Research Areas
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ANTS 2020 solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm intelligence.
Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:
- Behavioral models of social insects or other animal societies that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches.
- Theoretical and empirical and research in swarm intelligence.
- Application of swarm intelligence methods (e.g., ant colony optimisation or particle swarm optimisation) to real-world problems.
- Theoretical and experimental research in swarm robotics systems.


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Important Dates
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Submission deadline: April 17, 2020
Notification of acceptance: June 19, 2020
Camera ready copy: July 3, 2020
Conference: October 26–28, 2020


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Publication Details
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Accepted papers will be published in the LNCS conference proceedings (Springer). The journal Swarm Intelligence will publish a special issue dedicated to ANTS 2020 that will contain extended versions of the best research works presented at the conference. Further details will soon be published on the web site.


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Conference Location
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Residencia d'Investigadors
Carrer de l'Hospital, 64
08001 Barcelona


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Best Paper Award
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A best paper award will be presented at the conference. Continuing the tradition of the ANTS Conference Series, the prize winner will receive a sculpture of an ant expressly created for the ANTS Conference by the Italian sculptor Matteo Pugliese.


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ANTS 2020 Organizing Committee
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++ General chair ++
Marco Dorigo and Thomas Stützle - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels

++ Local organisation and publicity chair ++
Maria J. Blesa - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona
Christian Blum - Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Barcelona

++ Technical program chairs ++
Christian Blum - Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Barcelona
Heiko Hamann, University of Lübeck, Lübeck

++ Publication chair ++
Mary Katherine Heinrich, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels

++ Paper submission chair ++
Volker Strobel - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels


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Further Information
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Up-to-date information will be published at the following address:
http://www.swarm-intelligence.eu/ants2020/