A path planning method using modified harris hawks optimization algorithm for mobile robots

Cuicui Cai; Chaochuan Jia; Yao Nie; Jinhong Zhang; Ling Li

doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.1473

A path planning method using modified harris hawks optimization algorithm for mobile robots

PeerJ Comput Sci. 2023 Jul 18:9:e1473. doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1473. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cuicui Cai¹, Chaochuan Jia¹, Yao Nie¹, Jinhong Zhang¹, Ling Li¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Electronics and Information Engineering, West Anhui University, Lu'an, China.

Abstract

Path planning is a critical technology that could help mobile robots accomplish their tasks quickly. However, some path planning algorithms tend to fall into local optimum in complex environments. A path planning method using a modified Harris hawks optimization (MHHO) algorithm is proposed to address the problem and improve the path quality. The proposed method improves the performance of the algorithm through multiple strategies. A linear path strategy is employed in path planning, which could straighten the corner segments of the path, making the obtained path smooth and the path distance short. Then, to avoid getting into the local optimum, a local search update strategy is applied to the HHO algorithm. In addition, a nonlinear control strategy is also used to improve the convergence accuracy and convergence speed. The performance of the MHHO method was evaluated through multiple experiments in different environments. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient in path length and speed of convergence than the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, improved sparrow search algorithm (ISSA), and HHO algorithms.

Keywords: Harris hawks optimization algorithm; Mobile robot; Obstacle avoidance; Optimal path; Path planning.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Provincial Natural Science Research Project of Anhui University (Grant Nos. 2022AH051667 and 2022AH051669), the Natural Science Key Scientific Research Project of West Anhui University (Grant Nos. WXZR202103 and WXZR202004). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.