Path planning for wheel loaders: A discrete optimization approach

In construction projects, wheel loader is widely used for transporting building materials. The operations of wheel loader contain extensively repetitive tasks that could be optimized and automated for sustainable construction. This paper proposes, according to optimal control theory, an optimization approach for the loading cycle concerning fuel efficiency and environmental impacts. Based on a 2D space discretization and a detailed wheel loader model, a dynamic programming approach is formulated for optimal path search. The method is effective for integrating the system models with the path planning algorithm and for handling objective functions and constraints. A case study was carried out to demonstrate the application of the proposed algorithm for the loading cycle with spatial constraints.