Control & Motion

Robot Maze Escape

A robot is dropped in the middle of a maze. It can see one square ahead. Get it to the exit with the fewest moves.

30 min+130 XP

Watch

See it happen in the real world.

Real robots solve mazes by treating every step as a tiny plan. They imagine all the places they could go next, then pick the one that gets closer to the goal. The same trick — called pathfinding — runs in your video games, your maps app, and self-driving cars. There's a famous algorithm for it called A* (say 'A star'). It was invented in 1968 and we still use it. Russ Tedrake's lab uses fancier versions for robots that have to plan in 3D, like a humanoid stepping over a rope.

Watch this

Think

A question worth sitting with.

If a robot can only see one square ahead, how does it know which way is closer to the exit?

Build

Make something with your hands.

Draw a 6x6 maze on graph paper. Place a 'robot' coin at the start. Move it one square at a time, writing down each move as up, down, left, or right. Your job is to write the shortest path.

Step-by-step

On graph paper, draw a 6×6 grid. Mark a START square in one corner and an EXIT in the opposite corner.
Draw walls between squares — about 10 walls is plenty. Make sure at least one path connects START to EXIT.
Place a coin on START. The coin is your robot. The robot can only move up, down, left, or right.
Write each move as a single letter: U, D, L, R. The list of letters is your robot's program.
Run the program by moving the coin one square per letter. Did you reach EXIT? Count your moves.
Now try to write a shorter program. Every move costs energy in a real robot — fewer moves means a smarter plan.

Try this in Scratch (or as pseudocode on paper)

Scratch (blocks)

when [green flag] clicked
  set x to 0
  set y to 0
  repeat until <touching [exit]?>
    if <not <wall to [right]?>> then
      change x by 1
    else if <not <wall [down]?>> then
      change y by -1
    end
  end
  say [I made it!] for 2 secs

Toolkit

Paper
Scratch

Play

Test it. See what it does.

Race a friend or family member. Each of you solves the same maze. The winner is whoever uses the fewest moves, not whoever finishes first.

Challenge

Push it a little further.

Solve the maze blindfolded. Have someone tell you only 'wall' or 'no wall' when you ask about a direction. Can your robot still find the exit?

Reflect

Notice what your robot taught you.

What would you improve about your maze-solving strategy?

Also ask yourself

What surprised you?

Reward

Mission outro

+0XP

“There's always a next move. Keep going.”

Skills advanced: motion planning, logic and loops

Badge

Maze Master

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