Research On Multi-goal Path Planning Considering The Timeliness For Multi-platform

In some multi-point access tasks, the multi-platform system has higher task completion ability and efficiency than single platform. For the multi-platform task allocation, if we take consideration of the timeliness of the task point, and other than only consider the path cost will greatly improve the multi-platform system’s performance when dealing with multi-point access task which has timeliness property.For the multi-point access problem searched in this paper, a multi-platform and multi-goal path planning system considering the timeliness is designed. In this system, the multi-point access problem is modeled as a multiple traveling salesman problem with timeliness. In the solving process, we take two optimization goals(path cose and timeliness cost) into cosideration. In this paper, ant colony algorithm is proposed to solve these problems, and the target weight parameter is taken in to adjust the two optimization goals in the process. After this, we can get the task point sequences of each platform.After the task point sequences of each platform generated, the path between two task points is needed to plan based on the platform characteristics. In this paper, two typical unmanned platforms(differential steering platform and Ackerman steering platform) are studied. In the multi-platform and multi-goal path planning system, different path planning and path following methods are designed according to the characteristics of two unmanned platforms. For differential steering platform, we employ A * algorithm as the path planning method, using the heading error feedback algorithm as the path tracking method. For Ackerman steering platform, we employ the improved A * algorithm as the path planning method and using pure tracking algorithm as the path tracking method.In the experiment, the multi-platform systems consist of P3-AT mobile robots and ‘Ray’ unmanned vehicles are used to carry out the multi-point acess tasks with timeliness. Experimental result shows that the proposed multi-platform and multi-goal path planning system can successfully deal with the multi-point with timeliness access problem, and the planning result is more satisfying to the task.