A Museum Visitors Guide with the A* pathfinding algorithm

Abstract

The A* algorithm is proven to be one of the most, if not the most, used AI pathfinding algorithm in game development today. Current development effort is now focused on optimizing the A* algorithm and applying it to solve real-world problems. In this paper, we present a Museum Visitors Guide (MVG) application with the A* pathfinding algorithm that helps museum visitors to make the most of their visit. The A* algorithm is optimized in a number of ways. First, the shortest path between the visitor's current location and the goal art piece is dynamically produced in response to the changes of the exhibition floor plans. Secondly, visitors are allowed to select multiple works of art that they want to see. The best path that our MVG finds out covers them all. Thirdly, multiple optimum and load-balanced paths are discovered when there are multiple targets - a feature that is very useful for emergencies, e.g., for firefighters to put out the flames. To demonstrate that our MVG is well functional, flexible, and even ready to migrate to hand-held mobile platforms, we will show the running results of our simulation in the end of this paper.