The Path Planning of Mobile Robots Based on an Improved A* Algorithm

Path planning with the traditional A* search algorithm for mobile robots has the disadvantages of too close distance from the obstacle, no consideration of the robot size and much redundant turning points. These disadvantages make it difficult to guide the robot movement in practice. This paper proposes a smoothing A* algorithm based on map compression. The map is compressed to make the planned path avoid the narrow position, and the smoothing algorithm is adopted to effectively reduce the turning points and the length of the path. The simulation is carried out on a grid map with typical narrow positions, and its results show that the obtained path is feasible, safe and efficient. The improved A* algorithm is applied to the XQ-4 Pro robot for comparative experiments. The experimental results show that the path of the improved A* algorithm is obviously better than the former algorithm, and can guide the robot to the target in practice.