Path planning of a mobile robot using genetic heuristics

Abstract

A genetic algorithm for the path planning problem of a mobile robot which is moving and picking up loads on its way is presented. Assuming a findpath problem in a graph, the proposed algorithm determines a near-optimal path solution using a bit-string encoding of selected graph vertices. Several simulation results of specific task-oriented variants of the basic path planning problem using the proposed genetic algorithm are provided. The results obtained are compared with ones yielded by hill-climbing and simulated annealing techniques, showing a higher or at least equally well performance for the genetic algorithm.