Part 1: Find/download robot simulation software, and make a robot run into an obstacle
This is an animated gif of a robot slowly progressing in its original directory at a constant speed with a slight rotation to make it interesting.
The simulation software is a package called player/stage. The stage is the simulation portion, providing a sandbox for the player to interact with. The stage is a literal server, and a player, a client, connecting to a server, creating a robot instance and then controlling it. The map is defined by a configure file which one loads when the server starts up.
Part 2: Implement a motion planning algorithm on a classmate
1) If not already standing, acquire a standing position, face the white board.
2) If there is no obstacle ahead of you head straight until obstacle reached
3) if obstacle in front, step left until obstacle reached
4) repeat step 2 then step 3 until both terminate without any progress
5) rotate 90 degrees counter clockwise
6) open the door...