Spatial layout planning of cable based on a hybrid method combining interference obstacle local post-insertion and improved Dubins curves

Cables in three-dimensional (3D) wall-adherent routing must simultaneously satisfy terminal direction vectors and bending curvature constraints, making forward design and precise pre-cutting a significant challenge. To address this, this paper proposes a hybrid planning method, termed IOLPDC, which combines interference obstacle local post-insertion with improved Dubins curves. The approach first utilizes an undirected graph spanning tree to unfold the 3D routing environment into a two-dimensional (2D) plane. Within this 2D domain, a multi-waypoint Dubins curve is introduced, and a post-insertion strategy is developed. This strategy generates a highly efficient Dubins path by initially ignoring obstacles, followed by binary-tree detouring, pruning, and redundant waypoint elimination to achieve a high-quality feasible path satisfying both directional and curvature constraints. Additionally, for local non-wall-adherent regions arising during 3D reconstruction, an engineering transition solver based on a 3D Dubins path is implemented via a Differential Evolution algorithm. Simulation results in a planar environment demonstrate that compared with Hybrid A* and RRT*Dubins, the proposed IOLPDC method reduces path length by 13.23% and 8.51%, and shortens median planning time by 50.00% and 34.38%, respectively. Experimental verification confirms that cables pre-cut according to the planned lengths precisely match the actual routed paths, effectively eliminating the traditional “cut-to-fit” process and demonstrating strong engineering practicality.