A bidirectional path-finding algorithm and data structure for maritime routing

Route planning is an important problem for many real-time applications in open and complex environments. The maritime domain is a relevant example of such environments where dynamic phenomena and navigation constraints generate difficult route finding problems. This paper develops a spatial data structure that supports the search for an optimal route between two locations while minimizing a cost function. Although various search algorithms have been proposed so far (e.g. breadth-first search, bidirectional breadth-first search, Dijkstra’s algorithm, A^*, etc.), this approach provides a bidirectional dynamic routing algorithm which is based on hexagonal meshes and an iterative deepening A^* (IDA^*) algorithm, and a front to front strategy using a dynamic graph that facilitates data accessibility. The whole approach is applied to the context of maritime navigation, taking into account navigation hazards and restricted areas. The algorithm developed searches for optimal routes while minimizing distance and computational time.