Another Toy Robot Simulator

The application is a simulation of a toy robot moving on a 5 x 5 unit tabletop. It is an example of a well tested, object oriented design, employing the command design pattern. It is commonly used as an code-test. See specifications below for the full text of the test.

This application was developed on Ubuntu 16.10 x86_64. It requires Ruby 2.3 or later.

To check your version run:

$ ruby -v

Information on installing Ruby can be found at Installing Ruby.

The latest release can be installed via RubyGems:

$ gem install another_toy_robot

Alternatively it can be built from source:

$ git clone https://github.com/drzel/another_toy_robot.git
$ cd another_toy_robot
$ bundle install

The test suite is invoked with:

$ bundle exec rspec

Unit tests are written to Sandi Metz' Unit Testing Minimalist guidelines.

$ another_toy_robot

This will present a prompt:

Input command:

Valid commands are:

Commands resulting in the robot moving to an out-of-bounds position (x or y being less than 0 or greater than 4) will be ignored.

The app implements:

• The command pattern
• The null-object pattern (for positions)
• The singleton pattern (for directions)

another_toy_robot is an executable in your load path. It is a Ruby script that calls the main function:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require "another_toy_robot"
AnotherToyRobot.main

AnotherToyRobot#main instantiates a new Client. The Client instantiates a new Robot and Arena. The new Robot is initialised with NullPosition, and assigned the new arena.

The main loop does the following:

• Requests user input
• Instantiates a new Input object
• Passes the new Input object to the client's #command_for method

The Input class contains methods to parse the user input and determine the correct Command class for the given command. E.g. "move" will resolve a the MoveCommand while "derp" will resolve InvalidCommand.

The Client#command_for method calls the Input#new_command method, passing the @robot as the target.

The xCommand object will parse any arguments provided and call the appropriate action on the @robot.

When receiving #left, #right or #move, the robot will pass the request to its @position which will respond with the new position. The #place method obtains it's position from the commands parameters. Then Robot will then check with its @arena to see if the position is #inbounds before assigning the new position to itself.

When receiving a #left, #right or #move message the NullPosition will return itself.

When the Robot receives #report it prints its @position as a string.

This process continues until an "exit" command is received, breaking the loop.

Given the requirement for a command line interface to interact with the robot, I settled on the well established and widely used command pattern.

The Input wrapper allows new commands to be easily added. E.g. Creating a new file lib/another_toy_robot/random_command.rb and requiring it, is all that is required for the application to accept the "random" command, and it would have access to an array of parameters. Validations can also be added by defining a valid? method on the command object. See the lib/another_toy_robot/place_command.rb for an example.

I'm particularly happy with the Position class and the Direction modules. Together as a unit they have absolutely no dependencies and could be easily reused with new features, new objects, or with changing specifications. It would be reasonably straight forward to add a second robot, or a third dimension.

MIT

My goal is to continue to develop this application to use as an example for other developers who are learning Ruby and object oriented design and have attempted to ensure it is SOLID, DRY, OO and TDD.

If you have something to contribute, whether it be to report an bug, suggest a potential improvement or even ask a question, don't hesitate to log an issue.

Pull requests are also warmly welcomed.

• another_toy_robot on RubyGems
• RubyDoc.info auto-generated documentation
• Discussion on Reddit

• The application is a simulation of a toy robot moving on a square tabletop, of dimensions 5 units x 5 units.
• There are no other obstructions on the table surface.
• The robot is free to roam around the surface of the table, but must be prevented from falling to destruction. Any movement that would result in the robot falling from the table must be prevented, however further valid movement commands must still be allowed.
• Create an application that can read in commands of the following form:

PLACE X,Y,F
MOVE
LEFT
RIGHT
REPORT

• PLACE will put the toy robot on the table in position X,Y and facing NORTH, SOUTH, EAST or WEST.
• The origin (0,0) can be considered to be the SOUTH WEST most corner.
• The first valid command to the robot is a PLACE command, after that, any sequence of commands may be issued, in any order, including another PLACE command. The application should discard all commands in the sequence until a valid PLACE command has been executed.
• MOVE will move the toy robot one unit forward in the direction it is currently facing.
• LEFT and RIGHT will rotate the robot 90 degrees in the specified direction without changing the position of the robot.
• REPORT will announce the X,Y and F of the robot. This can be in any form, but standard output is sufficient.
• A robot that is not on the table can choose the ignore the MOVE, LEFT, RIGHT and REPORT commands.
• Input can be from a file, or from standard input, as the developer chooses.
• Provide test data to exercise the application.

The toy robot must not fall off the table during movement. This also includes the initial placement of the toy robot. Any move that would cause the robot to fall must be ignored.

a)

PLACE 0,0,NORTH
MOVE
REPORT

Output: 0,1,NORTH

b)

PLACE 0,0,NORTH
LEFT
REPORT

Output: 0,0,WEST

c)

PLACE 1,2,EAST
MOVE
MOVE
LEFT
MOVE
REPORT

Output: 3,3,NORTH

The source files, the test data and any test code.

It is not required to provide any graphical output showing the movement of the toy robot.

• RafaelChefe's Toy Robot Simulator
• Sandi Metz' Unit Testing Minimalist
• Daniel Steele and Omnidev