From: Darin Sunley (rsunley@escape.ca)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 17:30:15 MDT
An article in a recent issue of Scientific American (I believe)
described a simple algorithim that duplicated to a surprising degree the
algorithim that a cockroach uses as it searches for food. As I recall,
the algorithim went roughly like this.
smell for food
move forward a random number of steps
repeat until we've found food:
smell for food
if we are closer to food then we were
walk forward a random number of steps
else
spin in a random direction
walk forward a random number of steps
Does anybody recall the particular issue of Scientific American this
article appeared in, or have a URL to any other references on this. I am
attempting to implement this algorithim in a robot built with the Lego
Mindstorms kit and I want to make sure I have the algorithim right.
On a related note, has anybody ever heard of the term "retreating search
curve" used to describe a search for a particular point on a two
dimensional surface. If so, could you please direct me to any sources
you may know of?
Thank you in advance...
Darin Sunley
rsunley@escape.ca
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