I was doing some research on the A* pathfinding algorithm and was wondering if I could use it during the autonomous period. I think it could be a good way to create an efficient auton without hardcoding the entire thing. Has anyone done anything like this before? I’m new to vex, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be a terrible idea.
From a computer science perspective, the A* algorithm can technically find the best path. However, this only applies when you have a well-defined graph that you can traverse over and search. Robots that implement A* to solve (for example) a maze need to first explore the maze to set up the graph that the algorithm runs on.
A V5RC auton has the same starting conditions every time. A* would therefore not be useful since there is no new path to find, if that makes sense. Something more applicable for V5RC would be a path-following algorithm like pure pursuit.
If you are just getting started in vex, pure pursuit should not be used until you learn fundamentals like odometry and PID controllers. Those are essential for competitive auton routines and usually plenty effective!
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I think RRT* Pipelines would be a lot better, by creating a path with obstacle avoidance by pre-setting object locations.
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Thank you so much! RRT* seems like a great algorithm for my use case.
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