Consider the simplified robot shown in Figure FigEx3. Suppose the robot’s Cartesian coordinates are known at all times, as are those of its goal location. However, the locations of the obstacles are unknown. The robot can sense obstacles in its immediate proximity, as illustrated in this figure. For simplicity, let us assume the robot’s motion is noise-free, and the state space is discrete. Figure FigEx3 is only one example; in this exercise you are required to address all possible grid worlds with a valid path from the start to the goal location.
1. Design a deliberate controller that guarantees that the robot always reaches its goal location if at all possible. The deliberate controller can memorize measurements in the form of a map that is being acquired as the robot moves. Between individual moves, it may spend arbitrary time deliberating.
2. Now design a reactive controller for the same task. This controller may not memorize past sensor measurements. (It may not build a map!) Instead, it has to make all decisions based on the current measurement, which includes knowledge of its own location and that of the goal. The time to make a decision must be independent of the environment size or the number of past time steps. What is the maximum number of steps that it may take for your robot to arrive at the goal?
3. How will your controllers from (a) and (b) perform if any of the following six conditions apply: continuous state space, noise in perception, noise in motion, noise in both perception and motion, unknown location of the goal (the goal can be detected only when within sensor range), or moving obstacles. For each condition and each controller, give an example of a situation where the robot fails (or explain why it cannot fail).