A generalized 3-D path planning method for robots using Genetic Algorithm with an adaptive evolution process

• Published in: 2010 8th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation pp. 1354 - 1360
• Main Authors: Wing Kwong Chung, Yangsheng Xu
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.07.2010
• Subjects: 3-D path planning; Adaptation model; adaptive evolution; Biological cells; Cities and towns; genetic algorithm; Genetics; Optimization; Path planning; Robots
• DOI: 10.1109/WCICA.2010.5554851

Traditionally, path planning for robots is modeled as optimization problems. One of the most commonly used optimization strategies is Genetic Algorithm (GA) since it always guarantees a nearly shortest path even a global path can not be obtained within a reasonable time. In fact, the performance enhancement of GA is still an open topic for researchers by designing different genetic operators. In addition to this, we propose a new criterion for the selection of genetic operators during evolution in order to further facilitate the searching efficiency. In this paper, we propose a generalized 3-D path planning method for robots using GA with an adaptive evolution process. Based on the framework of traditional GA, we first introduce a new genetic operator, called Bind-NN which randomly divides and recombines an elitist chromosome based on nearest neighbor. We also show that by choosing the fitness variance of the shortest path in last generations as a guidance in selecting genetic operators during evolution, the search efficiency can be significantly improved, thus proposing a genetic operators selection scheme. In the latter part of this paper, we present the algorithm evaluation by stimulating a sample path planning problem on a structural frame. With the use of the proposed genetic operator and selection scheme, experimental results show a significant improvement in terms of search effectiveness and efficiency.