ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN PATH PLANNING FOR AUTONOMOUS BULLDOZERS: COMPARISON WITH MANUAL OPERATION

摘要

Komatsu Ltd. is reinforcing the R&D of automation technology for our earth-movers. Based on this trend, a path planning methodology for autonomous bulldozers is proposed and developed. This methodology autonomously plans an efficient path depending on a given terrain specification. Conventional existing path planning algorithms are designed versatilely, typically by using a grid-based map. However, in reality, a substantial effort is still required when applying to specific industry products. In contrast to this trend, the aim of this work is to develop a path planning algorithm specifically suitable for our bulldozers, from the theory development phase. The novel path planning methodology was developed by incorporating industry feedback, and has successfully resolved the issues which occurred when attempting to apply the existing planning methodologies. This paper also demonstrates that, compared to experienced manual operation, the developed methodology performs equally in simple terrains, and outperforms in complex terrain. An optimization with many different factors involved is also presented to theoretically show the efficient operation.