Problem 1 - Mars Rover
A robotic rover is going to be landed by NASA on a plateau on Mars. This plateau, which is rectangular, must be navigated by the rover so that its on-board cameras can get a complete
and accurate view of the surrounding surface to send back to Earth.
A rover's position and location is represented by a combination of x and y co-ordinates and a letter representing one of the four cardinal compass points.
The plateau is divided up into a grid to simplify navigation. An example position might be 0, 0, N, which means the rover is in the bottom left corner and facing North.
In order to control a rover, NASA sends a simple string of letters. The possible letters are L, R and M. L and R makes the rover spin 90 degrees left or right respectively,
without moving from its current spot. M means move forward one grid point, and maintain the same heading.
Assume that the square directly North from (x, y) is (x, y + 1).
The plateau high view configuration is specified in an external file in the following format:
ooooooRRRR
ooRooooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
The file will be called plateau.txt and can be assumed to be available in the working directory of the application.
o means the land is plain and the rover can navigate through it, while R means the high view images showed there's a rock
and the rover must go around it. Each row must have the same number of characters. The lower-left coordinates are assumed to be 0, 0.
When the application starts it reads the plateau configuration and prints it on the screen, then it waits for user inputs:
Mars Rover v1.0 running, plateau configuration is:
XoooooRRRR
ooRooooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
>
When the user enters one of the commands (L, R or M) the application prints out the updated plateau using X to
mark the current rover position.
The initial position of the rover is considered the top-left corner with the rover facing East. For example, if we send M:
XoooooRRRR
ooRooooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
> M
We get:
oXooooRRRR
ooRooooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
>
We can also send more than one command at a time, for example if we send:
XoooooRRRR
ooRooooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
> MMMRM
We get:
ooooooRRRR
ooRXoooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
>
By typing x or X the user can close the simulation.
ooooooRRRR
ooRXoooooo
ooooooRRoo
ooRooooooo
oooooRoooo
oooooRRRoo
Waiting for commands.
> x
Sent 5 command(s) / 0 failed.
Mars Rover v1.0 closed.
When the user closes the simulation the total number of commands and the number of failed commands is printed. A command
is considered failed if we asked the rover to move through a rock or outside the boundaries of the plateau.
Please write your Submission in either Java or Kotlin, and use a build tool such as Maven or Gradle. Do not include any external library apart from JUnit. The application will be judged based on the following criteria:
- Code structure and design
- Readability and maintainability
- Use of tests
- Code performs to the specifications provided