An Efficient and Smooth Path Planner Based on Hybrid A* Search and Frenet Frames

As the technology of autonomous vehicles advances, the importance of automatic path planning also grows significantly. This leads to the exploration of diverse algorithms and learning-based techniques. While most methods safely and efficiently navigate vehicles to their destinations, the comfort of a journey is often overlooked. To address the issue, this paper focuses on a path planning algorithm that integrates the hybrid A* path planner [2] and the Frenet Frame trajectory generator [8]. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of travel efficiency and passenger comfort. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm better trades off travel efficiency and passenger comfort, compared with the pure Frenet Frame trajectory generator. The results also provide an insight that input preprocessing, even if it is a simple one, can affect Frenet Frame trajectory generator significantly, and it is worth future exploration.