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    Bhuvaneswari Ramamurthy
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    The document describes using a two-dimensional array to represent a maze that a rat must navigate to find cheese. The rat's position in the maze can be tracked using row and column indices in the array. The possible moves from each position are represented by numbers corresponding to compass directions. Storing the row and column offsets for each direction in a MOVE table allows easily calculating the new position for any given move.

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    The document describes using a two-dimensional array to represent a maze that a rat must navigate to find cheese. The rat's position in the maze can be tracked using row and column indices in the array. The possible moves from each position are represented by numbers corresponding to compass directions. Storing the row and column offsets for each direction in a MOVE table allows easily calculating the new position for any given move.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    80 views2 pages

    Maze Problem

    Uploaded by

    Bhuvaneswari Ramamurthy
    The document describes using a two-dimensional array to represent a maze that a rat must navigate to find cheese. The rat's position in the maze can be tracked using row and column indices in the array. The possible moves from each position are represented by numbers corresponding to compass directions. Storing the row and column offsets for each direction in a MOVE table allows easily calculating the new position for any given move.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    MAZE PROBLEM IN DATA STRUCTURE

    The rat-in-a-maze experiment is a classical one from experimental psychology. A rat (or
    mouse) is placed through the door of a large box without a top. Walls are set up so that movements
    in most directions are obstructed. The rat is carefully observed by several scientists as it makes its
    way through the maze until it eventually reaches the other exit. There is only one way out, but at
    the end is a nice hunk of cheese. The idea is to run the experiment repeatedly until the rat will zip
    through the maze without taking a single false path. The trials yield his learning curve.
    We can write a computer program for getting through a maze and it will probably not be any
    smarter than the rat on its first try through. It may take many false paths before finding the right
    one. But the computer can remember the correct path far better than the rat. On its second try it
    should be able to go right to the end with no false paths taken, so there is no sense re-running the
    program. Why don't you sit down and try to write this program yourself before you read on and
    look at our solution. Keep track of how many times you have to go back and correct something.
    This may give you an idea of your own learning curve as we re-run the experiment throughout the
    book.
    Let us represent the maze by a two dimensional array, MAZE(1:m,1:n), where a value of 1 implies a
    blocked path, while a 0 means one can walk right on through. We assume that the rat starts at
    MAZE(1,1) and the exit is at MAZE(m,n).
    With the maze represented as a two dimensional array, the location of the rat in the maze can at
    any time be described by the row, i, and column, j of its position. Now let us consider the possible
    moves the rat can make at some point (i,j) in the maze. Figure 3.6 shows the possible moves from
    any point (i,j). The position (i,j) is marked by anX. If all the surrounding squares have a 0 then the
    rat can choose any of these eight squares as its next position. We call these eight directions by the
    names of the points on a compass north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and
    northwest, or N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW.
    We must be careful here because not every position has eight neighbors. If (i,j) is on a border
    where either i = 1 or m, or j = 1 orn, then less than eight and possibly only three neighbors exist.
    To avoid checking for these border conditions we can surround the maze by a border of ones. The
    array will therefore be declared as MAZE(0:m + 1,0:n + 1).
    Another device which will simplify the problem is to predefine the possible directions to move in a
    table, MOVE(1:8.1:2), which has the values

    MOVE
    (1)
    (2)
    (3)
    (4)
    (5)
    (6)
    (7)
    (8)

    1
    --1
    -1
    0
    1
    1
    1
    0
    -1

    2
    -0
    1
    1
    1
    0
    -1
    -1
    -1

    north
    northeast
    east
    southeast
    south
    southwest
    west
    northwest

    By equating the compass names with the numbers 1,2, ...,8 we make it easy to move in any
    direction. If we are at position (i,j) in the maze and we want to find the position (g,h) which is
    southwest of i,j, then we set
    g i + MOVE(6,1);
    h j + MOVE(6,2)

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