SIMULATING MACRO AND MICRO PATH PLANNING OF EXCAVATION OPERATIONS USING GAME ENGINE
Amin Hammad, Khaled El Ammari, Seied Mohammad Langari, Faridaddin Vahdatikhaki, Mohammad Mostafa Soltani, Homam AlBahnassi, Bruno Paes, Maisonneuve Blvd · 2014
The planning of large excavation operations requires careful consideration of the conditions of the site, the soil to be excavated, and the equipment to be used. Previous research in this area addressed the macro-level or micro-level path planning of excavation operations. However, this research is integrating both macro and micro path planning issues and considering safety at the level of equipment fleet. This paper aims to: (1) synthesize a new approach for integrating macro and micro path planning methods considering the safety of excavation operations, and (2) simulate these methods using a game engine. The Unity3D game engine was used to develop a simulation environment for earthmoving operations using A* algorithm for macro path planning, and a parametric rule-based approach and RRT algorithm for micro path planning.