Path Planning of Fruit and Vegetable Picking Robots Based on Improved A* Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Abstract

Aiming at the suboptimal local path, slow convergence speed, and many inflection points in the path planning of fruit and vegetable picking robots in complex environments, a global planning method combining particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and A* algorithm was proposed. Firstly, Manhattan distance was taken as a heuristic function of global programming based on the A* algorithm. Secondly, the step size of PSO was adjusted to optimize the path, shorten the path length, and reduce the number of inflection points. Finally, the planned path of the fruit and vegetable picking robot was smoothed so that it could steadily move along a smoother driving path in real scenarios. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional PSO algorithm, the hybrid algorithm based on the improved A* algorithm and PSO algorithm achieves a smoother path and fewer folding points. In comparison with the PSO algorithm, moreover, this algorithm can guarantee the path generation efficiency and the global optimum. In the end, the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by shortening the path length and reducing the accumulative number of inflection points.