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Maze Map

Cort edited this page Sep 4, 2022 · 4 revisions

This world generates a configurable maze. There are many challenges that can take place on this world, and some are described below.

Here's a video of a GearsBot solving the maze : YouTube Video

Configurations

Maze Type

  • Perfect or Imperfect
  • Perfect mazes have no loops or isolated walls. Player always starts at the bottom left corner.
  • Imperfect mazes may have loops and isolated wall segments. This may make it slightly easier for a human to solve, but can also make it harder for a computer. Some maze solving algorithms may not work on an imperfect maze.
  • When generating an imperfect maze, the columns and rows must always be an odd number. It's also preferable to generate a large maze. Your robot will start at the center of an imperfect maze.

Number of Columns / Rows

  • Sets the number of columns and rows in the maze.
  • If creating an imperfect maze, the columns and rows must always be an odd number. If you have set an even number, one will be added.

Cell size

  • Size of each cell in cm.
  • Don't set this too small or your robot may not fit.

Wall height

  • Height of the wall.
  • There are generally very few reasons to change this, except for some very advanced challenges.

Maze seed

  • If left blank, a random maze will be generated on every reset.
  • You can also provide a number here (eg. 42), and Gears will generate a maze using the provided number. Everyone who uses the same seed will get the same maze (...provide the type, columns, and rows are the same). This is useful if you're running a competition and want to ensure that all participants gets the same maze.

Challenges

For all of these challenges, you may vary the number of columns and rows for increased or reduced difficulty.

Basic

  • (Perfect Maze) Navigate to the red cell and stop there.
  • (Perfect Maze) Navigate to every colored cell and stop at the last.
  • (Perfect Maze) Try the previous two challenges using the "Maze Runner MkII" robot.

Intermediate

  • (Imperfect Maze) Pick a random color and navigate to that cell. You should repeat this a few times with different mazes, as depending on the position of the maze's "imperfection", your robot may not be affected.
  • (Perfect Maze) Robot is allowed to explore the maze for some time (eg. 5 mins). When ready, it should go to the red cell, sound a beep, then navigate to the green cell. The shortest path from red to green (...in number of cells) wins. All movement before the beep are ignored.
  • (Imperfect Maze) The same as the previous challenge, but with an imperfect maze.

Advanced

  • (Imperfect Maze) Noticed that the outer walls are a different color from the inner walls? Can your robot make use of that to improve your navigation algorithm?
  • (Imperfect Maze) Reduced the wall height and configure a robot with additional sensors that lets it see over the wall. Can you make use of this added information to improve your navigation?