Time-Efficient USV Path Planning Based on Weighted Dynamic Programming
Chaofan Duan, Lijuan Wang, Hui Wang, Xuechun Wang, Peng Ye · 2024
Unmanned surface vehicle plays an important role in the implementation of ocean tasks based on its autonomous navigation ability, flexibility, cost-efficiency, and strong adaptability. As the core component of the autonomous navigation capability of USV, path planning is an essential guarantee for safe voyage in an unknown ocean environment. In this paper, a time-efficient USV path planning algorithm based on weighted dynamic programming (WDP) is proposed. The proposed algorithm first discrete the continuous area using direction oriented grid structure method, and all the grids are potential path selection candidates. Then, considering the ocean environment factors of the target area, the weighted dynamic planning algorithm is proposed for USV path planning, which aims at generating a safe and time-efficient path. At the same time, the virtual potential field method is applied for the need of sudden dangerous situations for obstacles avoidance. The simulation results show that the weighted dynamic programming algorithm is able to generate a time-efficient path and verified the correctness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.