I have an assignment where I'm supposed to implement a simple vacuum cleaner agent with a randomized agent function. Basically there's a world with 36 rooms in a 6 x 6 grid. The vacuum cleaner determines which square is it in and whether there is dirt in the square. It can choose to move left, move right, suck up the dirt, or do nothing.

I'm new to python and I'm having really hard time to figure out what to do and how to do this. This is all I've done so far and I kind of have a mental block on what do do next. Specifically how would I implement the simulations of sucking dirt or perform the movements left, right, up, or down.
If anyone can push me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

# vacuum cleaner

DIRTY = '*'
CLEAN = '#'
NUM_ROOMS = 36

room = ['*', '*', '#', '#', '*', '#',
'#', '#', '*', '*', '#', '#',
'*', '#', '#', '*', '*', '*',
'*', '*', '#', '#', '#', '#',
'#', '#', '*', '*', '*', '#',
'*', '*', '#', '#', '#', '*']

Is this similar to the Knight's Tour problem, where you have to go to every room? Is this supposed to be a graphical "game" showing the vacuum as it moves or is it text? For example, is it supposed to display a grid like you have above or does is simply spit out lines to the console like "Moving to room 24. There is dirt present."?

No.


Yes

In pseudocode, here are some options:


There are several ways to consider position. For example, you could assign each room a numerical value 1-36 or you could give it a tuple based on it's x and y coordinates. Personally I was say a tuple is easier because you can eassily determine whether the vaccuum is next to wall by looking at one of the tuple values.

Then all you have to do is update the tuple each time the vaccuum moves. When it's ready to move again, you look at whether it's next to a wall; if so, you eliminate that direction as a movement option.