Solution to Shortest Path Problem Using a Connective Probe Machine

Abstract

With the continuous urban scale expansion, traffic networks have become extremely complex. Finding an optimal route in the shortest time has become a difficult and important issue in traffic engineering study. In this study, a novel computing model, namely, probe machine, is used to solve this problem. Similar to previous studies, urban transport networks can be abstracted into maps, in which points representing places of origin, destinations, and other buildings constitute the data library and edges representing the road make up the probe library. The true solution can be obtained after one probe operation on the computing platform. And by comparing the solving process with Dijkstra’s and Floyd’s algorithms, the computing efficiency of the probe machine is clearly superior, although all three methods can solve the shortest path problem and obtain the same solution.