A Priority-based Modified A^∗ Path Planning Algorithm for Multi-Mobile Robot Navigation

Abstract

Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) are designed for automated storage and retrieval of parts and items in specific locations within manufacturing, warehouses, institutions, and others. These systems are usually comprised of predefined locations where machines/robots can follow established routes to get items. The Path planning belongs to shortest path problem. For these robots, it is important to find the shortest path, without causing any conflict among them. Several algorithms exist to find shortest path, notably Dijkstra and A*, which are famous to solve this kind of problem. Additionally, a preference is recommended in such environment for the most important robotic task among these robots. The preferred robot will be selected as the one with highest priority to accomplish the task. In this work, we suggested a simple and efficient algorithm based on A* algorithm to find the path planning with collision-free for these robots with priority among these machines, so that to have one machine to be of higher priority than all of the others robots. We proposed two priority algorithms A1 and A2. We also did simulation results to show the efficiency of the proposed priority algorithms. The new priority algorithm showed to be very effective with both A1 and A2 algorithms.