Bee Nest Site Selection as an Optimization Process

In recent years several bee inspired optimization techniques have been proposed. These methods are either based on the bees’ foraging or mating behavior. Both foraging and mating regulate distributions outside (foraging) or within a colony (mating). Foraging determines the ratio of individuals that explore the surroundings for new food sources and those that exploit known food sources, while mating determines the distribution of genotypes within a colony. In contrast, nest-site selection is a processes that constitutes a decision-making process and enables a colony to identify and converge towards one best solution. We therefore propose to use the bees’ nestsite selection behavior as the basis for developing new bee inspired optimization techniques. Using a model of the nestsite selection process of real bees, we empirically investigate its optimization potential. In particular, we determined if this model works in dynamic and noisy environments. Our results are promising and suggest that nest-site selection can be indeed useful in the context of optimization.