US Patent 7110881 Modular path planner

A perimeter training module establishes a perimeter path plan of a vehicle including a defined perimeter. A region-filling module establishes a region-filling path plan of the vehicle within the defined perimeter. A point-to-point planning module establishes a point-to-point path plan of a vehicle including a segment of at least one of the region-filling path plan and the perimeter path plan. The path planner forms a preferential composite path plan based on the established perimeter path plan, the region-filling plan, and the point-to-point path plan.