A Hierarchical Approach and A Multilevel Genetic Algorithm for Vehicle Path Planning

A hierarchical approach is presented for path planning of vehicles in an environment in this paper. In this approach, the optimal path planning problem is partitioned into two sub-optimization problems in different levels, respectively. The first level optimizes the location of a number of points in the environment and the second level seeks the optimal allocation of features. Connecting these points with the start and goal points forms the path of the vehicle. A multilevel genetic algorithm is applied in solving this problem. Case studies are carried out to verify the approach and the algorithm.