Purpose – This paper aims to propose a new method for combining global path planning with local path planning, to provide an efficient solution for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) path planning despite the changeable environment. Path planning is the key issue of USV navigation. A lot of research works were done on the global and local path planning. However, little attention was given to combining global path planning with local path planning. Design/methodology/approach – A search of shortcut Dijkstra algorithm was used to control the USV in the global path planning. When the USV encounters unknown obstacles, it switches to our modified artificial potential field (APF) algorithm for local path planning. The combinatorial method improves the approach of USV path planning in complex environment. Findings – The method in this paper offers a solution to the issue of path planning in changeable or unchangeable environment, and was confirmed by simulations and experiments. The USV follows the global path based on the search of shortcut Dijkstra algorithm. Both USV achieves obstacle avoidances in the local region based on the modified APF algorithm after obstacle detection. Both the simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the combinatorial path planning method is more efficient in the complex environment. Originality/value – This paper proposes a new path planning method for USV in changeable environment. The proposed method is capable of efficient navigation in changeable and unchangeable environment.

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Regenerative chatter is a self-excited vibration that can occur during milling, which shortens the lifetime of the tool and results in unacceptable surface quality. In this paper, an improved semidiscretization method for modeling and simulation with variable pitch and variable helix milling is proposed. Because the delay between each flute varies along the axial depth of the tool in milling, the cutting tool is discrete into some axial layers to simplify calculation. A comparison of the predicted and observed performance of variable pitch and variable helix against uniform pitch and uniform helix milling is presented. It is shown that variable pitch and variable helix milling can obtain larger stable cutting area than uniform pitch and uniform helix milling. Thus, it is concluded that variable pitch and variable helix milling are an effective way for suppressing chatter.