Autonomous vehicle path planning for smart logistics mobile applications based on modified heuristic algorithm

Abstract

In this study, a heuristic algorithm is used to find an optimal route for smart logistics loading and unloading applications. Various environments, such as traditional building blocks, satellite images, terrain environments, and Google map environments are developed by converting into a binary occupancy grid and used to optimize the viable path in the smart mobile logistics application. The proposed autonomous vehicle (AV) route planning navigation approach is to forecast the AV’s path until it detects an imminent obstacle, at which point it should turn to the safest area before continuing on its route. To demonstrate the path navigation results of proposed algorithms, a navigational model is developed in the MATLAB/Simulink 2D virtual environment. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) method, the Bat search algorithm, and its proposed variants are used to identify a smooth and violation-free path for a given application environment. The proposed variants improve the algorithm’s effectiveness in finding a violation-free path while requiring less time complexity by using cubic spline curve interpolation and its improved constriction factor. Extensive simulation and benchmark validation results show the proposed standard PSO has a significantly shorter violation-free path, quick convergence rate and takes less time to compute the distance between loading and unloading environment locations than the cooperative coevolving PSO, Bat algorithm, or modified frequency Bat algorithms.