CS 470    ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE        WINTER 2006              

QUIZ 1:  RL500 (Robomow) Simulation

Instructions: 

1. Download the simulator from here.  Install it on your machine.
2. Click on "New Lawn" then "start simulator", then "draw lawn"   After drawing the outline of the lawn (end it with a doubleclick), click on "drawHouse", then "drawTree".  Get comfortable running the simulator.
3. QUESTION 1:  Describe what you think is the general algorithm used by the robot.  Just use informal English but do include any hardware (specifically sensors) that your algorithm assumes.
4. QUESTION 2:  Design a lawn with exactly one house and two trees (with size and location determined by you), that MINIMIZES the percentage of lawn mowed by the RL500 (in simulation) in three run cycles (i.e., this means only two (2) recharges!).  Experiment with size and shape of lawn, and placement of house, trees, and RL500.  After three cycles, click on "% lawn mowed" to find out how you did.  If the RL500 gets stuck and asks for help, you must help it!  Save the lawn and turn in the bitmap file of the saved lawn, along with a SCREEN SHOT showing "%mowed".  I will rank the class and award 150 pts to the first place, 140 points to second, 130 to the third, etc.  Goal is to exploit the weakness(es) in the RL500's algorithm and find a"worst case" scenario for the RL500.
5. QUESTION 3:  Same as question 2 above except that here your goal is to design a lawn that MAXIMIZES the percentage of lawn mowed by the RL500.  Same constraints:  one house, two trees, three mowing cycles.  Goal here is show the strength/bias of the RL500 by finding a "best case" scenario for it.  Again, turn in the saved lawn file and a screenshot of the mowed lawn showing the % mowed.  I will rank the class and award points based on rank for this question as well!
6. Turn in your five files (two bmp lawn files, two screen shots, and one of whatever type of file you use to answer Q1 above) in our class' webCT dropbox for quiz 1.