A heuristic intelligent path planning method based on the multivariant optimization algorithm and the Bezier curve is presented.The path planning problem is transformed into an optimization problem through using the Bezier curve to represent a path in this method.Then

the multivariant optimization algorithm is applied to find the optimal control points of the best Bezier curve

aiming at finding the optimal path.The multivariant optimization algorithm searches the solution space through iterations of alternative global and local search.According to the different responsibilities

the search individuals (atoms) could be divided into two types:the global atoms and the local atoms.In each iteration

global atoms explore the whole solution space to local potential areas

and then

local atoms exploit each potential area.Obviously

atoms are characterized by multivariant responsibilities

hence the name of the multivariant optimization algorithm.The good performance of the multivariant optimization algorithm is ensured by the efficient communication and cooperation of multivariant atoms.To evaluate the performance of the multivariant optimization algorithm

comparative experiments against the other three classical heuristic path planning algorithms are carried out based on a standard testing map.The results show that our proposed method is superior to the other methods in optimality

stability and efficiency.