Hybrid path planning for USVs using improved A* and DWA

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2026.000025

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 45-63.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2026.000025

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Hybrid path planning for USVs using improved A* and DWA

Guangwei WANG¹^,²^,³(), Le YANG⁴(), Zhikun TAN¹^,²(), Yichen LI¹^,²(), Wenbin YU¹^,²^,*()

¹School of Automation and Intelligent Sensing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
²Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai 200240, China
³Tianjin Navigation Instruments Research Institute, Tianjin 300074, China
⁴Hangzhou Changwangzhichuang Co., Ltd, Hangzhou 310013, China

Received:2025-12-12 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2026-03-09
Contact: Wenbin YU E-mail:ray7772008@163.com;anti_i@163.com;zhikuntan@sjtu.edu.cn;liyichensjtu@sjtu.edu.cn;yuwenbin@sjtu.edu.cn
About author:
WANG Guangwei was born in 1983. He received his B.E. degree in electrical engineering and automation from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2007, and M.E. degree in motors and electrical appliances from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2010. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in electronic information at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. His main research interests include underwater navigation and data analysis technologies. E-mail: ray7772008@163.com

YANG Le was born in 1992. He received his B.S. degree in geographic information system from Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China, in 2015, and M.A. degree in agricultural informatization from Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China, in 2018. He is currently serving as deputy director of the Large Model Center at Hangzhou Changwang Zhichuang Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China. His main research interests include algorithm research in individual and swarm intelligence for unmanned equipment, covering target detection, tracking, re-identification, path planning, swarm collaboration, multimodal large models and intelligent agent development in the field of computer vision. E-mail: anti_i@163.com

TAN Zhikun was born in 1999. He received his B.E. degree in marine engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2020, and M.E. degree in fluid mechanics from China Ship Science Research Center, Wuxi, China, in 2020. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. His main research interests include cross-domain formation control and target tracking. E-mail: zhikuntan@sjtu.edu.cn

LI Yichen was born in 1993. He received his B.S. degree in detection, guidance and control technology from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2016, and Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2022. He is now a postdoc in control science and engineering with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. His main research interests include underwater multi-robot localization and trajectory planning, wireless networks, and information fusion. E-mail: liyichensjtu@sjtu.edu.cn

YU Wenbin was born in 1983. He received his Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2016. He is currently an associate professor with the Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His main research interests include data fusion and control strategy for autonomous underwater vehicle system. E-mail: yuwenbin@sjtu.edu.cn
Supported by:
This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (62203299;62373246;62388101), the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Deep-Sea Manned Vehicles (2024SKLDMV04), the Oceanic Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SL2023MS007), and the Startup Fund for Young Faculty at SJTU (24X010502929).

Abstract

Abstract:

A safe and reliable path planning algorithm is fundamental for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to perform autonomous navigation tasks. However, a single global or local planning strategy cannot fully meet the requirements of complex maritime environments. Global planning alone cannot effectively handle dynamic obstacles, while local planning alone may fall into local optima. To address these issues, this paper proposes a multi-dynamic-obstacle avoidance path planning method that integrates an improved A* algorithm with the dynamic window approach (DWA). The traditional A* algorithm often generates paths that are too close to obstacle boundaries and contain excessive turning points, whereas the traditional DWA tends to skirt densely clustered obstacles, resulting in longer routes and insufficient dynamic obstacle avoidance. To overcome these limitations, improved versions of both algorithms are developed. Key points extracted from the optimized A* path are used as intermediate start-destination pairs for the improved DWA, and the weights of the DWA evaluation function are adjusted to achieve effective fusion. Furthermore, a multi-dynamic-obstacle avoidance strategy is designed for complex navigation scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that the USV can adaptively switch between dynamic obstacle avoidance and path tracking based on obstacle distribution, validating the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Key words: multiple dynamic obstacles, A* algorithm, dynamic window approach (DWA), unmanned surface vehicle (USV), path planning, collision avoidance

Guangwei WANG, Le YANG, Zhikun TAN, Yichen LI, Wenbin YU. Hybrid path planning for USVs using improved A* and DWA[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(1): 45-63.

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References 40

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Parameter	Traditional A*	A* considering obstacles	Optimization algorithm
Number of inflection nodes	15	10	5
Turning angle/(°)	675.00	450.00	164.06
Path length/m	63.91	63.91	61.94

Parameter	Value
$ {v}_{\max}/\text{(m/s)} $	$ 1.0 $
$ {w}_{\max}/({\mathrm{rad/s}}) $	$ 0.523\;6 $
$ \dot{{v}_{a}} $/($ {\mathrm{m/{s}}}^{2} $)	$ 0.2 $
$ \dot{{w}_{a}}/({\mathrm{rad/{s}}}^{2}) $	$ 0.872\;7 $
$ \alpha $	$ 0.05 $
$ \gamma $	$ 0.1 $
$ \varphi $	$ \text{π} /3 $
$ r/\mathrm{m} $	0.2/0.5/0.7
$ {v}_{\min}/\text{(m/s)} $	$ -1.0 $
$ {w}_{\min}/({\mathrm{rad/s}}) $	$ -0.523\;6 $
$ \dot{{v}_{b}}/({\mathrm{m/{s}}}^{2}) $	$ -0.2 $
$ \dot{{w}_{b}}/({\mathrm{rad/{s}}}^{2}) $	$ -0.872\;7 $
$ \beta $	$ 0.2 $
$ {t}_\text{sim}/{\mathrm{s}} $	$ 3.0 $
$ \mu $	$ 0.05/0.1/0.3 $

Radius of obstacle expansion circle/m	Time of navigation/s			Path length/m			Average velocity/(m/s)
Radius of obstacle expansion circle/m	Traditional algorithm	Improved algorithm	Time reduction rate/%	Traditional algorithm	Improved algorithm	Time reduction rate/%	Traditional algorithm	Improved algorithm	Time reduction rate/%
0.2	48.72	22.83	53.14	14.91	14.27	4.29	0.31	0.63	103.22
0.5	83.85	33.27	60.32	20.32	14.71	27.61	0.24	0.44	83.33
0.7	33.36	19.78	40.70	19.94	17.76	10.93	0.60	0.90	50.00

$ \mu $	Time of navigation/s	Path length/m	Average velocity/(m/s)
0	72.40	14.63	0.20
0.05	57.34	14.32	0.25
0.1	56.91	14.95	0.26
0.3	54.88	15.80	0.29

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Hybrid path planning for USVs using improved A* and DWA

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