Combination A*-Dynamic Window Path Planning Algorithm in Rail Port AGV container transport

Faced with more and more transportation tasks, the transportation efficiency of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) using solidified road network and single route in rail port container transport is unable to meet the transportation task. An improved Dynamic Window path planning algorithm based on A* heuristic function (A*-DWA) is presented in this paper to improve the transportation efficiency by giving more flexible driving paths. Based on A* algorithm, a new evaluation function is constructed by adding heuristic factors to the Dynamic Window Algorithm (DWA), so that the global optimal path can be obtained by A*-DWA algorithm. Simulation verifies the usability of the A*-DWA algorithm. It improves the path smoothness and reaching success rate to the target point. The computation cost is also reduced significantly.