Martian Surface Explorer

This is a rover built to operate on the Martian surface. Its primary functions are:

• Pathfind the way to a given destination, given a map
• For unexplored terrain, map out a given area

In each case, you can pick a certain number of pathfinding/mapping algorithms available, and (in case of the pathfinder) you can also choose a parameter you wish to optimise the path for.

The Martian Surface

The Martian surface is not flat, nor full of random walls - it has hills, valleys, plains, and plateaus. So, the map of the surface provided here is similar: Each cell has a height level, and the rover in navigating can choose to stay on the same level, climb, or speed downhill. This choice affects its energy consumption and speed: going downhill for example is very fast, but also a lot more energy-consuming than either of the other two (as it needs to constantly monitor to balance while speeding).

The differences in height levels also determines if navigating past a slope is impractical; thus creating "walls". It's not impossible to get past them, just more impractical due to the energy expenditure.

Pathfinding

For pathfinding, the rover can try either Djikstra's algorithm or A-Star search. In each case, the answer should be the same, the "optimal" path according to the parameters set. Djikstra's however can be slower, as A-Star search also uses a heuristic (Manhattan Distance) to try optimise its search space.

The parameters can be either Time optimisation or Energy optimisation - as seen earlier, some paths may be more beneficial for time, and others for energy. Of course, in both cases, if at any point the slope is too large, the rover won't go in that direction.

Exploration

Exploration is simple: the terrain is unknown, and the rover must estimate the height levels of various cells in its visible range the best it can, and then move to try and cover more area.

The rover's scanning ability is limited by geometry. If there is an obstacle in its line of sight, it is unable to see beyond that.