A Novel Path Planning Approach with Bidirectional A* Algorithm Based on Road Characteristics

The global path planning of a traditional A* algorithm is investigated to obtain the shortest path, which considers only the straight-line distance between grids without considering the effects of road slope and road resistance on the path distance and the energy consumption for ground vehicles. The heuristic function of shortest path based on road slope and the heuristic function of minimum energy consumption based on road resistance coefficient are respectively developed in this paper. Combining the two improvements, a novel comprehensive heuristic function is proposed in this paper. Through the distribution of weight coefficients between the shortest path and the minimum energy consumption, one more reasonable path can be obtained. In addition, a bidirectional A* search algorithm is also applied. The case studies validate that the improved A* search algorithm in this paper can generate a more reasonable path considering the distance and the energy consumption.