Bidirectional artificial potential field-based ant colony optimization for robot path planning

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a common approach for addressing mobile robot path planning problems. However, it still encounters some challenges including slow convergence speed, susceptibility to local optima, and a tendency to falling into traps. We propose a bidirectional artificial potential field-based ant colony optimization (BAPFACO) algorithm to solve these issues. First, the bidirectional artificial potential field is introduced to initialize the grid environment model and restrict direction selection to jump out of the trap. Second, an adaptive heuristic function is presented to strengthen directionality of the algorithm and reduce the turning times. Third, a pseudo-random state transition rule based on potential difference between starting and ending nodes is developed to accelerate convergence speed. Finally, an improved pheromone update strategy incorporating pheromone diffusion mechanism and elite ants update strategy is proposed to help getting out of local optima. To demonstrate the advantages of BAPFACO, the validation of the performance in six different complexity environments and comparative experiments with other conventional search algorithms and ACO variants are conducted. The results of experiment show that compared to various ACO variants, BAPFACO have advantages in terms of reducing the turning times, shortening path length, improving convergence speed and avoiding ant loss. In complex environments, compared to IHMACO, the average path length enhancement percentage (PLE) of BAPFACO is 20.98%, the average iterations enhancement percentage (IE) of BAPFACO is 20.00% and the average turning times enhancement percentage (TE) of BAPFACO is 49.43%. These results firmly demonstrate the efficiency and practicality of the BAPFACO algorithm for mobile robot in path planning.