PathFinder

PathFinder is a framework for implementing, testing, visualizing and benchmarking path-planning algorithms which involve dynamic replanning.

Path-planning is a process in which a suitable path has to be determined from a source to destination given a map of a region in an appropriate form. Dynamic replanning means the ability to modify the path when new obstacles are detected while following the path.

Packages

This project's java code is split up into packages. Each package has a well-defined function. (Unfortunately there is somewhat tight coupling between the packages, so they can't be used independently without some modification.)

• graph: Contains classes for representing graphs.
• planner: Contains classes which represent path planning algorithms.
• robot: Contains classes which represent an agent which has a local copy of a map, an actuator to move about, and a sensor to detect changes in surroundings.
• gridpanel: gridpanel.GridPanel is a class which extends JPanel and can be used to draw GUI grids.
• driver: Driver modules which are supposed to be run by the end user.
• util: Utilities.

There's also a directory named sample_input, which contains input files which can be fed to the application.

How to build

This java project doesn't have any dependencies except Apache ant. If you don't have ant, you can:

• install it via sudo apt-get install ant if you are on a Debian-based operating system.
• install it by following instructions on Apache ant's website.

Once you have ant, run ant build in the project's root directory.

If you don't want to install ant, you can view build.xml and write appropriate javac commands yourself.

Documentation

Run ant doc to generate documentation in doc/.

How to run

To run a text-based application, you can run:

java driver.CliDriver sample_input/Graph.txt

Read driver/CliDriver.java to see which commands are supported.

To run a GUI application, you can run:

java driver.GuiDriver sample_input/GridGraph3.txt DijkstraPlanner 2 2

It should be intuitive how to use this application, but if you have any problems, please refer to driver/GuiDriver.java and inform me about it.