Playing with A* Updated

A* algorithm

Just updated the Playing with A* algorithm app so that now one can toggle on and off the use of the heuristic and the use of a cross product tiebreaker. This leads to new variants of the algorithm, mainly the well known Dijkstra algorithm.

This A * application was written in Java, so you’ll need to check your java permissions to run it. You can download the .jnlp file and run it from your computer.

The A* Algorithm (A star) is a pathfinding and graph traversal algorithm. It is widely used in computer science, games, robotics and network science. A thorough overview of the algorithm can be found in Introduction to A* which presents several comparisons and illustrations on the mechanics of the A star algorithm.

Playing with the A* Algorithm

A star algorithm

In computer science, A* (pronounced “A star”) is a computer algorithm that is widely used in pathfinding and graph traversal, the process of plotting an efficiently traversable path between points, called nodes. Noted for its performance and accuracy, it enjoys widespread use. [Wikipedia]

My implementation uses a tie-breaker based on the cross product of the vectors from the start to the target and the evaluated node and the target.

The A Star App was coded in java. If your browser doesn’t run java you can download the A Star Jnlp file and run it from your desktop.