An evolutionary method for active learning of mobile robot path planning

Several evolutionary algorithms have been proposed for robot path planning. Most existing methods fo r evolutionary path planning require a number of generations for finding a satisfactory trajectory and thus are not e@cient enough for real-time applications. In this paper we present a new method for evolutionary path planning whach can be used on-line in real-time. We use an evolutionary algorithm as a means for active learning of a route map for the path planner. Given a source-destination pair, the path planner searches the map for a best matching route. I f an acceptable match is not found, the planner uses another evolutionary algorithm to generate on-line a path for the sourcedestination pair. The overall system is an incremental learning planner that gradually expands ats own knowledge suitable for path plannzng in real-time. Simulatzons huve been performed zn the domazn of robotic soccer to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.