Colony location algorithm for assignment problems

A novel algorithm called Colony Location Algorithm (CLA) is proposed. It mimics the phenomena in biotic community that colonies of species could be located in the places most suitable to their growth. The factors working on the species location such as the nutrient of soil, resource competition between species, growth and decline process, and effect on environment were considered in CLA via the nutrient function, growth and decline rates, environment evaluation and fertilization strategy. CLA was applied to solve the classical assignment problems. The computation results show that CLA can achieve the optimal solution with higher possibility and shorter running time.