xTrek: An Influence-Aware Technique for Dijkstra’s and A Pathfinders

Finding a path (in black) from the top-left node to the bottom-right node of a 50 × 50 grid using our influence-aware Dijkstra’s (DjT) pathfinder: (a) without attractors and repulsors, the search space (neutral nodes in cyan) covers the entire map; (b) with 2 attractors, the search space does not cover the entire map, but it counts on neutral nodes (in cyan) and attractor nodes (in red-to-yellow blended with cyan); (c) with 2 repulsors, the search space covers neutral nodes (in cyan) but not repulsor nodes (in dark lilac-to-light lilac); (d) with 2 attractors and 2 repulsors, the search space partially covers neutral nodes (in cyan) and attractor nodes (in red-to-yellow blended with cyan). Nodes in cyan or blended with cyan represent visited nodes, that is, nodes in the open and closed lists.