An optimum vehicular path algorithm for traffic network based on hierarchical spatial reasoning

Human beings' intellection is the characteristic of a distinct hierarchy and can be taken to construct a heuristic in the shortest path algorithms.It is detailed in this paper how to utilize the hierarchical reasoning on the basis of greedy and directional strategy to establish a spatial heuristic,so as to improve running efficiency and suitability of shortest path algorithm for traffic network.The authors divide urban traffic network into three hierarchies and set forward a new node hierarchy division rule to avoid the unreliable solution of shortest path.It is argued that the shortest path,no matter distance shortest or time shortest,is usually not the favorite of drivers in practice.Some factors difficult to expect or quantify influence the drivers' choice greatly.It makes the drivers prefer choosing a less shortest,but more reliable or flexible path to travel on.The presented optimum path algorithm,in addition to the improvement of the running efficiency of shortest path algorithms up to several times,reduces the emergence of those factors,conforms to the intellection characteristic of human beings,and is more easily accepted by drivers.Moreover,it does not require the completeness of networks in the lowest hierarchy and the applicability and fault tolerance of the algorithm have improved.The experiment result shows the advantages of the presented algorithm.The authors argued that the algorithm has great potential application for navigation systems of large_scale traffic networks.