Minimizing radiation dose in dynamic radiation environment using Conflict-Based Incremental Planner

Abstract

Since it is important to reduce the overall radiation dose of workers employed in radiation-related facilities, a multi-path finding algorithm, named Conflict-Based Search for Minimum Dose, was developed for minimum dose. Despite generating the multi-paths, it has critical disadvantages including prolonged computation time and inability in dynamic environment, results from constraints tree and a lack of re-planner. The proposed algorithm improved the computational performance by replacing constraints tree with constraints linked-list. Moreover, a developed algorithm with re-planner makes it possible by partial update even in dynamic environment to not only re-search multi-paths in a short time but also reduce the computational complexity. This proposed approach significantly expedites the process of discovering and recalculating multiple paths. To validate the proposed method, two hypothetical cases were conducted. Results from the first hypothetical case revealed that the integration of constraints linked-list and re-planner slashed the computational time from over 600 s–6.54 s. The second hypothetical case further attested to the efficiency of algorithm, which shows that the incremental planner paired with the re-planner for constraints and dynamic environment could re-generate paths in under 3 s. The advancements presented in this research are expected to enhance safety for personnel in radiation-related facilities.