Abstract: This paper proposes a variant of ACO called Max-Min Ant System with Lifetime Estimation（MMAS_LE）.MMAS_LE uses both macroscopical control and microcosmic control based on lifetime estimating of ants to realize mutational and risky search behavior，which can broaden the search space，break local convergence and speed the global convergence by increasing the population diversity actively.The simulation results on TSP problem show that MMAS_LE can efficiently avoid premature convergence and well balance the exploration and exploitation.

Key words: ant colony optimizations, lifetime estimation, pheromone, Traveling Salesman Problem（TSP）

摘要： 提出了一种具有寿命估算的最大-最小蚂蚁系统，该算法对进化种群数进行宏观调控的同时，用个体寿命限制个体的生存期，利用蚂蚁能估算自己所剩寿命的能力，实现其突变性的大风险搜索行为，从而扩大搜索范围，即主动性增加蚁群多样性，使蚁群逃离局部最优，并为实现蚁群的快速收敛提供可能。通过对TSP问题的仿真实验结果表明，该方法能够有效防止早熟收敛，较好地平衡局部搜索和全局搜索的收敛性能。

关键词: 蚁群算法, 寿命估算, 信息素, 旅行商问题（TSP）