Empirical analysis of new methods for computing minimum cost paths with turn constraints
Ali Boroujerdi, Jeffrey K. Uhlmann · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1998
In this paper we describe a recently developed algorithm for computing least cost paths under turn angle constraints. If a graph representation of a two or three dimensional routing problem contains V vertices and El edges, then the new algorithm scales as O(IEI log V). This result is substantially better than O((EIIVI) algorithms for the more general problem of routing with turn penalties, which cannot be applied to large scale graphs. We also describe an enhancement to the new algorithm that dramatically improves the performance in practice. We provide empirical results showing that the new algorithm can substantially reduce the computation time required for constrained vehicle routing. This performance is sufficient to allow for the dynamic re-routing of vehicles in uncertain or changing environments. Keywords: Dijkstra's algorithm, least cost paths, range searching, routing, turn constraints.