Comparison of Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation Using Satellite and Airborne LiDAR Data

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Chang, Xue, Zhexiong, Sziranyi, Tamas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Liu, Chang
Xue, Zhexiong
Sziranyi, Tamas
author_facet Liu, Chang
Xue, Zhexiong
Sziranyi, Tamas
contents Autonomous vehicle navigation in unstructured environments, such as forests and mountainous regions, presents significant challenges due to irregular terrain and complex road conditions. This work provides a comparative evaluation of mainstream and well-established path planning algorithms applied to weighted pixel-level road networks derived from high-resolution satellite imagery and airborne LiDAR data. For 2D road-map navigation, where the weights reflect road conditions and terrain difficulty, A*, Dijkstra, RRT*, and a Novel Improved Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (NIACO) are tested on the DeepGlobe satellite dataset. For 3D road-map path planning, 3D A*, 3D Dijkstra, RRT-Connect, and NIACO are evaluated using the Hamilton airborne LiDAR dataset, which provides detailed elevation information. All algorithms are assessed under identical start and end point conditions, focusing on path cost, computation time, and memory consumption. Results demonstrate that Dijkstra consistently offers the most stable and efficient performance in both 2D and 3D scenarios, particularly when operating on dense, pixel-level geospatial road-maps. These findings highlight the reliability of Dijkstra-based planning for static terrain navigation and establish a foundation for future research on dynamic path planning under complex environmental constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_05884
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Comparison of Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation Using Satellite and Airborne LiDAR Data
Liu, Chang
Xue, Zhexiong
Sziranyi, Tamas
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Autonomous vehicle navigation in unstructured environments, such as forests and mountainous regions, presents significant challenges due to irregular terrain and complex road conditions. This work provides a comparative evaluation of mainstream and well-established path planning algorithms applied to weighted pixel-level road networks derived from high-resolution satellite imagery and airborne LiDAR data. For 2D road-map navigation, where the weights reflect road conditions and terrain difficulty, A*, Dijkstra, RRT*, and a Novel Improved Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (NIACO) are tested on the DeepGlobe satellite dataset. For 3D road-map path planning, 3D A*, 3D Dijkstra, RRT-Connect, and NIACO are evaluated using the Hamilton airborne LiDAR dataset, which provides detailed elevation information. All algorithms are assessed under identical start and end point conditions, focusing on path cost, computation time, and memory consumption. Results demonstrate that Dijkstra consistently offers the most stable and efficient performance in both 2D and 3D scenarios, particularly when operating on dense, pixel-level geospatial road-maps. These findings highlight the reliability of Dijkstra-based planning for static terrain navigation and establish a foundation for future research on dynamic path planning under complex environmental constraints.
title Comparison of Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation Using Satellite and Airborne LiDAR Data
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05884