Optimal Secondary Cable Laying Path Planning In Complex Environments Using An Improved Ant Colony Algorithm: Model Development And Simulation

Cuizhuo  Yu; Xiao  Han; Qisong  Zhu; Minmin  Li

doi:10.6180/jase.202608_31.012

Optimal Secondary Cable Laying Path Planning In Complex Environments Using An Improved Ant Colony Algorithm: Model Development And Simulation

Cuizhuo Yu¹This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Xiao Han¹, Qisong Zhu¹, and Minmin Li¹

¹Ningbo Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd., NingBo, ZheJiang, China, 315000

Received: September 12, 2025
Accepted: December 1, 2025
Publication Date: February 3, 2026

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202608_31.012

In this paper, an improved antcolonyalgorithm (ACA) is suggested for the management of secondary cables and primary cable laying in complex environments. The method creates a digital representation of the region where the cable is laid, formulates a multiobjective function with path length, interference risk, and path tortuosity variables, and puts on engineering restrictions that connect the parts, bending radius, and the distance for safety. The upgraded ACA features a dynamic pheromone update with adaptable parameters that allow for a proper mixture of exploration and convergence, thus avoiding the algorithm being trapped in local optima and enhancing global search productivity. The simulation outcomes validate that the suggested technique maintains 100%pathconnectivity and simultaneously results in a constraint redundancy of below 10%. It also gives shorter and smoother paths compared to the classical methods. The major contributions are a constraint-integrated optimization frame, a dynamic pheromone reward-penalty system, and adaptive parameter setting, which together form a robust and effective solution for smart cable routing in challenging engineering environments.

Keywords: Improved Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm; Secondary Cables; Path Planning; Objective Function; Constraint Conditions

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