Multi-strategy cooperative enhancement dung beetle optimizer and its application in obstacle avoidance navigation

Path planning is a crucial component of unmanned driving systems designed to address the challenge of autonomous navigation. This article introduces a novel approach called the multi-strategy cooperative enhanced dung beetle optimization algorithm (RCDBO) and applies it to dispose of path planning issues. Its primary aim is to mitigate the shortcomings of the fundamental dung beetle optimization algorithm (DBO), namely, its tendency to prematurely converge to local optima and its limited global planning capability. Initially, population initialization leverages Bernoulli-based chaotic mapping to enhance diversity and ensure uniform randomness, thereby improving both the quality of initial solutions and optimization efficiency. Subsequently, a random walk strategy is employed to perturb the rolling behavior of the dung beetle population during the initial stage, thus mitigating potential algorithmic local stagnation. Finally, adopting a vertical and horizontal crossover strategy introduces perturbations to the current best value of the dung beetle population, thereby enhancing the DBO method's global optimization capability during the later stages of evolution. The RCDBO method was evaluated against several well-established swarm intelligence algorithms using twelve benchmark test functions, the CEC2021 test suite, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and the Friedman test, to rigorously assess its feasibility. Additionally, the effectiveness of each strategy within the RCDBO framework was validated, and the algorithm's capability to achieve an optimal balance between global exploration and local exploitation was systematically analyzed through the CEC2021 test suite. Furthermore, in path planning simulation experiments targeting maps of varying sizes and complexities, the RCDBO algorithm, compared to the basic DBO algorithm, results in shorter planned path lengths. In simpler map environments, it exhibits fewer turning points and smoother paths, indicating that the RCDBO algorithm also possesses certain advantages in addressing path-planning challenges.