Safe Priority Path Planning for Robots Based on Improved A* Algorithm

Aiming at the problems of too many redundant points and paths too close to obstacles generated by the traditional A * algorithm path planning, an improved A * path planning algorithm is proposed. Firstly, an algorithm is designed to adaptively expand the obstacles of the grid map so that there is enough safe distance between the planned path and the obstacles. Secondly, the algorithm is used to smooth the generated paths to reduce redundant points. In addition, as the optimisation algorithm reduces the search efficiency, the heuristic function of the algorithm is improved to increase the search efficiency. Finally, the search neighbourhood of the algorithm is transformed from 8-neighbourhood to mixed neighbourhood to further improve the search efficiency. Experimental results show that the proposed improved A * algorithm can effectively reduce the number of visited nodes, improve the path smoothness, and increase the path safety.