An ant algorithm for the maximum number of 3-cliques in 3-partite graphs

The problem of finding the maximum number of d-vertices cliques (d = 3) in d-partite graph (d = 3) when graph density q is lower than 1 is an important problem in combinatorial optimization and it is one of many NP-complete problems. For this problem a meta-heuristic algorithm has been developed, namely an ant colony optimization algorithm. In this paper a new development of this ant algorithm and experimental results are presented. The problem of finding the maximum number of 3-vertices cliques can be encountered in computer image analysis, computer vision applications, automation and robotic vision systems. The optimal solution of this problem boils down to finding a set of 3-vertices cliques in a 3-partite graph and this set should have cardinality as high as possible. The elaborated ant colony algorithm can be easily modified for d-dimensional problems, that is for finding the maximum number of d-vertices cliques in a d-partite graph.