Winner, Australasian Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award
Dr Shen’s thesis “Advances in Pathfinding Algorithms for Games, Route Planning Software, and Automated Warehouses” contributes to the traditional computer science field of pathfinding algorithms, with research from the thesis published in top-tier conferences. The thesis was examined by experts in the field who rate every aspect of the thesis as either excellent or exceptional. It is well written and makes clear significant contributions to the topic of pathfinding algorithms that are likely to deliver impact in applications such as robotics, gaming, and navigation.
Presentation Title: Advances in Pathfinding Algorithms for Games, Route Planning Software, and Automated Warehouses
Abstract: The pathfinding problem is a fundamental challenge in artificial intelligence, with numerous real-world applications across a variety of environments and domains. Many of these applications involve a large number of users, making it crucial to solve the pathfinding problem efficiently in order to ensure scalability. In this dissertation, we focus on the pathfinding problems in three distinct applications: (i) computer games, where the pathfinding task involves navigating an agent in a Euclidean plane with polygonal obstacles, (ii) route planning software, where the objective is to find an efficient path for a user to travel on a road network or a network that considers varying travel time, and (iii) automated warehouses, where multiple agents need to be coordinated simultaneously. Our research has yielded efficient and effective algorithms for solving pathfinding problems in a variety of distinct applications. Advancing the state-of-the-art in the field, we are now able to answer pathfinding queries much faster than before, potentially benefiting not only the applications we targeted but also a broader range of other extended applications. Looking forward, we also suggest several promising directions for future research.