GUI Program for Planning Paths of Rovers

The Path Planning Graphical User Interface is a computer program that, as its name indi- cates, generates a graphical user interface (GUI) for software that plans paths for robotic vehicles (rovers) to be used in exploration of remote planets. This GUI program is designed for use in conjunction with the A* Search Algorithm, which plans the path of a rover between starting and ending positions specified by the user. With the help of the GUI, the user can change rover positions interactively and can modify the parameters used by the path-planning search algorithm. Prior to the development of this GUI program, it was typical practice for engineers to hand-code path-planning algorithms in order to encode parameters particular to their application, so that testing with different parameters and terrain maps was tedious and costly. The present GUI program makes it easy for users to test their path-planning logic by downloading or modifying current terrain environments and search parameters, without need for a costly learning process.