>Although it's almost certainly not the best way to get out of a maze, the
>bullet-proof way is to walk forward with one shoulder against the wall. You
>will get to the exit if there is one.
>--
>Ted Spencer; ted@...


Ted:

Yep. There used to be a robot mouse contest offered within the 
educational community. Each year contestants would enter what they 
felt would be the best mouse to navigate a maze. Some entries were 
intelligent, which was the purpose of the event -- to find the most 
intelligent way to solve the maze. But, others just ran like crazy to 
find the other end.

For many years, the right-reading-mouse won the contest. It was a 
mouse that was designed for speed and it simply followed the right 
wall.

I always wanted to enter my two ideas. One, I called the merv-mouse 
-- which was a mother mouse that rolled up to the starting point and 
then released dozens of mini-mice that would run like carzy at random 
throughout the maze. The rules did not say that all of your mouse had 
to finish the maze, just find the solution. My other mouse was the 
tower-mouse -- which stood tall enough to take a picture of the maze, 
solve it internally and then send out a mouse to follow the solution. 
But, I never got the chance to enter my designs because they stopped 
having the contest. :*-(

tedd
-- 
http://sperling.com