Path Routing with Switch-back Avoidance for Autonomous Vehicles

We proposed a new framework for multi-agent system modelling and control with a cellular structure in (Zheng and Ozguner, 2006), and this is a subsequent paper as a series, focusing on the path routing for the leading vehicle of each vehicle group. Analog to track switch actions in railway systems, path selection for UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) or UGV (unmanned ground vehicles) is implemented by a series of virtual "switch" actions that is modelled as an evolution of route states. But if conventional shortest path algorithms are used to decide a route directly, the resulting optimal path sometimes contains so-called "switch-back" behaviors, which are hazardous to traffic. A recursive algorithm is developed to prevent vehicles from making switch-backs in path routing