The Blocks Problem |
Many areas of Computer Science use simple, abstract domains for both analytical and empirical studies. For example, an early AI study of planning and robotics (STRIPS) used a block world in which a robot arm performed tasks involving the manipulation of blocks.
In this problem you will model a simple block world under certain rules and constraints. Rather than determine how to achieve a specified state, you will ``program'' a robotic arm to respond to a limited set of commands.
The problem is to parse a series of commands that instruct a robot arm
in how to manipulate blocks that lie on a flat table. Initially there
are n blocks on the table (numbered from 0 to n-1)
with block adjacent to block
for all
as shown in the diagram below:
The valid commands for the robot arm that manipulates blocks are:
where a and b are block numbers, puts block a onto block b after returning any blocks that are stacked on top of blocks a and b to their initial positions.
where a and b are block numbers, puts block a onto the top of the stack containing block b, after returning any blocks that are stacked on top of block a to their initial positions.
where a and b are block numbers, moves the pile of blocks consisting of block a, and any blocks that are stacked above block a, onto block b. All blocks on top of block b are moved to their initial positions prior to the pile taking place. The blocks stacked above block a retain their order when moved.
where a and b are block numbers, puts the pile of blocks consisting of block a, and any blocks that are stacked above block a, onto the top of the stack containing block b. The blocks stacked above block a retain their original order when moved.
terminates manipulations in the block world.
Any command in which a = b or in which a and b are in the same stack of blocks is an illegal command. All illegal commands should be ignored and should have no affect on the configuration of blocks.
The input begins with an integer n on a line by itself representing the number of blocks in the block world. You may assume that 0 < n < 25.
The number of blocks is followed by a sequence of block commands, one command per line. Your program should process all commands until the quit command is encountered.
You may assume that all commands will be of the form specified above. There will be no syntactically incorrect commands.
The output should consist of the final state of the blocks world. Each
original block position numbered i
( where n is the number of blocks) should appear
followed immediately by a colon, followed by at least
one space, followed
by a list of blocks that appear stacked
in that position with each block number
separated from other block numbers by a space. Trailing spaces on a
line are ok. There should be one line of output for each block position
(i.e., n lines of output where n is the
integer on the first line of input).
10 move 9 onto 1 move 8 over 1 move 7 over 1 move 6 over 1 pile 8 over 6 pile 8 over 5 move 2 over 1 move 4 over 9 quit
0: 0 1: 1 9 2 4 2: 3: 3 4: 5: 5 8 7 6 6: 7: 8: 9: