A Dynamic and Scalable User-Centric Route Planning Algorithm Based on Polychromatic Sets Theory

Existing navigation services provide route options based on a single metric without considering user’s preference. This results in the planned route not meeting the actual needs of users. In this paper, a personalized route planning algorithm is proposed, which can provide users with a route that meets their requirements. Based on the multiple properties of the road, the Polychromatic Sets (PS) theory is introduced into route planning. Firstly, a road properties description scheme based on the PS theory was proposed. By using this scheme, users’ travel preferences can be quantified, and then personalized property combination schemes can be constructed according to these properties. Secondly, the idea of setting priority for road segments was utilized. Based on a user’s travel preference, all the property combination schemes can be prioritized at relevant levels. Finally, based on the priority level, an efficient path planning scheme was proposed, in which priority is given to the highest road segments in the target direction. In addition, the system can constantly obtain real-time road information through mobile terminals, update road properties, and provide other users with more accurate road information and navigation services, so as to avoid crowded road segments without excessively increasing time consumption. Experiment results show that our algorithm can realize personalized route planning services without significantly increasing the travel time and distance. In addition, source code of the algorithm has been uploaded on GitHub for this algorithm to be used by other researchers.