3D smooth path planning of AUV based on Improved Ant Colony Algorithm considering heading switching pressure

Abstract There are problems such as inaccurate expression of path environment information, large steering angle, and many inflection points in the autonomous underwater vehicle navigating in complex sea area. Aiming at these problems, a mathematical model is established for planning the shorter and smoother path. An improved ant colony optimization based on three-dimensional(3D) environment modeling is proposed in this paper. The grid method is used to implement 3D environment modeling. Through three spatial adjacency relationships between grids, the search strategy of spatial connectivity adjacency domain is refined to screen out the spatial search domain. All these will ensure path safety, and realize he practical three-dimensional space safe path planning traversal search. In order to search the optimal path quickly and efficiently, the heuristic functions of each evolutionary strategy are designed to improve the optimization ability of the algorithm. To ensure the stability of the algorithm, the pheromone update mechanism is improved. The adjustable pheromone volatilization factor is set to increase the adaptability of the algorithm. Finally, the effectiveness of the model and algorithm is verified by simulating the environment of obstacle spatial distribution.