Path planning algorithm under specific constraints in weighted directed graph

Abstract

At present, most of the path planning algorithms are only aimed at reaching the end point from the starting point. However, in practical applications, the existence of a variety of constraints increases the difficulty of path planning , so the Dijkstra algorithm, A* algorithm and other classical algorithms become no longer applicable in such a situation. In this paper, considering the various constraints in practical problems, we abstracted out such kind of path planning problem: In a weighted directed graph, paths need to be found which start from a source node, after passing through some specified intermediate nodes without repetition, and finally ends at a specified termination node. Based on Dijkstra algorithm and heuristic search principle, a feasible path planning algorithm is proposed with the new concept of “inspired hop count” to balance the path weight and search time.