Abstract: Block A* and Any-Angle Path-Planning

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search, 4

Volume

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2011): Fourth Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Search

Short Papers

We present three new ideas for grid-based path-planning algorithms that improve the search speed and quality of the paths found. First, we introduce a new type of database, the Local Distance Database (LDDB), that contains distances between boundary points of a local neighborhood. Second, an LDDB-based algorithm is introduced, called Block A*, that calculates the optimal path between start and goal locations given the local distances stored in the LDDB. Third, our experimental results for any-angle path planning in a wide varietyof test domains, including real game maps, show that Block A* is faster than both A* and the previously best grid-based any-angle search algorithm, Theta*.

10.1609/socs.v2i1.18210