Construction Equipment Collision-Free Path Planning Using Robotic Approach

Path planning is crucial in constructability analysis and heavy construction equipment scheduling, particularly in industrial plants. The main purpose of construction equipment path planning is devising the shortest path between its initial and aimed location. This suggested path is supposed to be safe, and collision-free. The current planning practice, even in industrial projects whose sites are extremely congested, is manual based on the expert judgment. Thus, this sophisticated manual process is not only prone to errors, but also time-consuming. This research presents an automated path planning approach based on an obstacle avoidance technique in robotics to support the decision-making process. The proposed methodology finds the shortest path for the planar motion of any convex 2D object. It assumes continuous translational (i.e. X and Y directions) and discretized rotational motions for the object. Two case studies are also presented to illustrate and to validate the proposed methodology.