Abstract
It is well known that path planning has always been an important study area for intelligent ships, especially for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Therefore, it is necessary to study the path-planning algorithm for USVs. As one of the basic algorithms for USV path planning, the rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) is popular due to its simple structure, high speed and ease of modification. However, it also has some obvious drawbacks and problems. Designed to perfect defects of the basic RRT and improve the performance of USVs, an enhanced algorithm of path planning is proposed in this study, called the adaptive hybrid dynamic stepsize and target attractive force-RRT(AHDSTAF-RRT). The ability to pass through a narrow area and the forward speed in open areas of USVs are improved by adopting the AHDSTAF-RRT in comparison to the basic RRT algorithm. The improved algorithm is also applied to an actual gulf map for simulation experiments, and the experimental data is collected and organized. Simulation experiments show that the proposed AHDSTAF-RRT in this paper outperforms several existing RRT algorithms, both in terms of path length and calculating speed.
Highlights
With the increasing frequency of human activities, the rapid consumption of global energy, and the harsh deterioration of environment, the development and application of water surface and marine areas is becoming increasingly extensive [1,2,3]
While a basic rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm alone is insufficient to solve a path-planning problem, it is customarily considered as a component that can be incorporated into the development of a variety of different planning algorithms
The mechanism of a target attractive force was introduced into the basic RRT algorithm, forming the target attractive force-RRT(TAF-RRT) algorithm
Summary
With the increasing frequency of human activities, the rapid consumption of global energy, and the harsh deterioration of environment, the development and application of water surface and marine areas is becoming increasingly extensive [1,2,3]. Most water operations and tasks need to be accomplished by ships, due to the special working environment of water. With the drive of engineering application demand in some bodies of water-such as shoals, lakes, and rivers-there has been an increasing development of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in recent decades [5]. The applications of USV include national and civilian uses [6]. Successful applications can be found in diverse areas, such as the replenishment of underway ships, marine exploration, maritime search and rescue, the fishery industry, coastal patrolling, and hydrologic monitoring [7]
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