A* Path Planning

A classic graph-search algorithm (Hart, Nilsson, and Raphael, 1968) that finds the shortest or lowest-cost path between two points by combining the cost already travelled with a heuristic estimate of the remaining distance. In assistive indoor navigation for blind travellers, A* is used on occupancy grid maps to generate obstacle-avoiding routes in real time: cells near walls or obstacles are assigned a higher cost so that the planner naturally produces paths that keep the user away from collisions, rather than simply the geometrically shortest route.