Aiming at the problems such as low search efficiency

unsmooth paths

and proximity to obstacles in traditional A

*

algorithm path planning

an improved A

*

algorithm is proposed.Firstly

the algorithm adaptively selects the search neighborhood based on obstacle distribution

avoiding redundant node expansion.It ensures path safety by performing a safety check according to the distance to the nearest obstacle.Additionally

it introduces a target-oriented angle to dynamically weight the heuristic function

enhancing search efficiency.Finally

the algorithm evaluates the generated path nodes

removes r

edundant points in both forward and backward directions

and optimizes the path using cubic B-spline curves.Simulation results show that in both simple and complex scenarios

the speed of the improved A

*

algorithm increases by 52.90%~80.05% and 44.77%~71.41% compared to the traditional A

*

algorithm.The number of traversed nodes decreases by 61.02%~77.71% and 55.56%~72.93%

respectively

and the improved A

*

algorithm produces smoother paths.