Re: Searching strategies

[David Otten <otten@mit.edu>]

I have done these studies in the past.  It is very maze dependent.  On long 
and complicated mazes, searching in and out is often all that is 
needed.  Searching in and out twice covers most of the rest of the cases.

I also had an algorithm that said if all the unknown walls and open, and 
the path is x percent faster, keep searching.  This proved to be a bad idea 
most of the time.

Recently I got burned at a contest at MINOS because I did not search enough.

Even though there is no penalty in Japan, with 5 minutes, extra searching 
could leave you with not enough time to finish all the speed runs.  In 
spite of that, I do a full search.

I think a common strategy is to do a speed run after the first in and out 
search, and then search some more on the way back.

At 06:10 PM 8/26/2010 +0100, you wrote:
>In the UK, as in some other countries, we have a search penalty. A 
>proportion of the time taken to search the maze is added to subsequent 
>speed runs. That means that a mouse that did a less than optimal speed run 
>early might get a better score than a mouse that did the best possible 
>route later.
>
>If searching consisted of just a search to the goal followed by a search 
>to the start, a route would exist but it may not be the best.
>
>Anyone have a feeling (or data) to suggest whether it is better to search 
>a bit more or just go with what you have as soon as possible?
>
>Peter Harrison
>
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