Abstract: Aiming at the problems of low efficiency, high labor cost and low flexibility of traditional logistics sorting system, an automatic logistics sorting system is designed. The improved A* algorithm and the artificial potential field method are used to realize the automatic path planning of the system by taking the transportation path as the research object. The A* algorithm is improved by adjusting the weights of actual cost and estimated cost, and the artificial potential field method is improved by adding virtual sub-target points and adjusting adaptive parameters, so as to complete the function of path planning of goods. Simulation and test results show that the algorithm can optimize the global path angle by 73.33%, shorten the length by 14.72%, and shorten the local path length by 6.17%. The relative coordinate error between the actual export and the target export is within 2.95%, which proves the feasibility of the method.

Key words: sorting platform, A* algorithm, artificial potential field method, path planning