This is a an applet that implements a well-known Artificial Intelligence algorithm called A* search. The ‘robot’ is set up in a maze-like structure and must find its way to the goal. The robot has complete knowledge of the environment – meaning that it knows where the goal is and where the walls are.
See this link to see a more complete description of A* search. This implementation of A* uses 4 simple heuristics (that is, guesses the robot can make about the best path to take based on knowledge of its environment):
1) the straightline distance between where the robot is and there the goal is.
2) the distance between where the robot is and there the goal is on the x-axis.
3) the distance between where the robot is and there the goal is on the y-axis.
4) the best of all value of any given heuristics.
