Field-Based Pathfinding: A Quantum-Inspired Alternative to A*
I’ve been experimenting with a lightweight algebraic system for quantum-like transformations and built a pathfinding engine out of it. Instead of using traditional heuristics like in A*, it uses a quantum equality (XY = X/Y) as the initializer to navigate grids.
The result is a pathfinder that feels "intelligent" without needing heavy heuristic design, and scales surprisingly well on large grids.
The full repo includes the quantum algebra system (Qualge) behind it and some visualizations for sorting and grid transformations.
Repo: https://github.com/ElSolem/qualge
Would love feedback or ideas for other systems this could apply to.
For those interested in the deeper structure and test results (including performance benchmarks like 2,000 x 2,000 grids), I wrote a more detailed paper about the quantum algebraic pathfinding method:
[PDF] Quantum Algebraic Pathfinding Paper: https://zenodo.org/records/15163031
It covers theory, performance, visualizations, and edge cases like division by zero handling.
I added a new PDF to the repository showing node scale and performance analysis (up to 100k x 100k grids, 10 billion nodes). If you're curious about deeper benchmarking, it's here: [https://github.com/ElSolem/qualge/blob/main/Quantum_Node_Ana...]