The bee colony optimization metaheuristic (BCO) is proposed in the paper. The BCO represents the new metaheuristic capable to solve difficult combinatorial optimization problems. The artificial bee colony behaves partially alike, and partially differently from bee colonies in nature. In addition to proposing the BCO as a new metaheuristic, we also describe in the paper two BCO algorithms that we call the bee system (BS) and the fuzzy bee system (FBS). In the case of FBS the agents (artificial bees) use approximate reasoning and rules of fuzzy logic in their communication and acting. In this way, the FBS is capable to solve deterministic combinatorial problems, as well as combinatorial problems characterized by uncertainty. The proposed approach is illustrated by three case studies

Design and development of systems for delivering real-time information to people with disabilities and elderly persons need to be based on defined user requirements. For this purpose, the user requirements have been defined in this paper according to the everyday needs of people who use traffic networks and move in closed spaces. The logical presentation of the functionality of the informing system operation and its subsystems includes all the information (data) important for designing a user information delivery system. The paper presents a conceptual architecture system for delivering user informing services related to the environment based on the Internet of Things concept. The aim of the user informing service is an increase in the level of mobility of persons with disabilities and the senior age groups of users. In order to check the operation of the proposed architecture, the informing system operation was monitored on Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi platforms in laboratory conditions. A simulation confirmed the interdependence of individual data from different subsystems in order to provide real-time information to the system user. The proposed conceptual architecture can contribute to a more efficient approach to the modeling of assistive technologies (with the aim of informing the users) based on dew/fog/cloud technologies in the Internet of Things environment.