Simulating transport networks with a physarum foraging model

Designing effective transport networks can be considered as one of the most debated problems in the area of computational intelligence. Some nature-inspired algorithms have shown excellent abilities in the adaptive network construction. In this aspect, a unique creature, called Physarum, has exhibited the computing capacity to optimize protoplasmic networks connecting distributed food sources. This inspires our work to design a Physarum foraging platform for constructing transport networks. Specifically, the traditional Physarum foraging model is adapted to construct transport networks in China. In order to get close to the real scenario, practical data are collected to build the environment of the Physarum foraging model and the structure of real transport networks. Some measurements in the domain of complex networks, such as average path length, network efficiency, topology robustness, and functional robustness, are used for performance comparison. The experimental results demonstrate that Physarum foraging models excel in constructing highly efficient and robust networks, which can be utilized for directing the design of transport networks in the real world.