Agent route planning in complex terrains

For many autonomous agents, such as mobile robots, autonomo us vehicles and Computer Generated Forces, route planning in complex terra in is critical task, as many of the agent’s higher-level goals can only be accomplis hed if the agent is in the right place at the right time. The route planning problem is often formulated as one of finding aminimum-costroute between two locations in a digitised map which represents a complex terrain of variable altitude, wh ere the cost of a route is an indication of its quality. However route planners whic h attempt to optimise a single measure of plan quality are difficult to integrate in to the architecture of an agent, and the composite cost functions on which they are b as d are difficult to devise or justify. In this paper, we present a new approach to route planning in complex terrains based on a novel constraint-based searc h pro edure,A with bounded costs (ABC), which generalises the single criterio n optimisation problem solved by conventional route planners and describe how a planner based on this approach has been integrated into the architecture of a simple agent. This approach provides a means of more clearly specifying agent tas ks nd more precisely evaluating the resulting plans as a basis for action.