A Prioritized Path Planning Algorithm for Heterogeneous Agricultural Robot Team
Yuseung Jo, Hyoung-Il Son · Journal of Institute of Control Robotics and Systems · 2024
In this paper, we propose a prioritized path planning algorithm applicable to heterogeneous agricultural robot team. This team comprises of multiple agricultural robots based on unmanned ground vehicles. The proposed algorithm is based on the traditional multi-agent path finding algorithm and considers varying robot priorities. The scalability and completeness of the algorithm are validated via simulations. The proposed algorithm is evaluated in scenarios occurring during representative agricultural tasks such as harvesting and transportation. A cooperative multi-robot system is configured to respond to the unstructed agricultural environment. In the experiment, the change in travel distance and time is confirmed based on priority. Specifically, the results revealed that the paths followed by agent 1, which was assigned the highest priority in the face and crossover scenario and orchard environment, are shortened considerably (3.6, 5.6, and 19.1 m respectively). Especially in the face scenario, the sum of the changes in distance, calculated using the proposed algorithm is negative, indicating that traffic congestion within this multi-robot system is alleviated without the need for inter-robot communication.