Mars Lander is a CodingGame challenge to safely land a space shuttle.
Based on this article from the CodingGame blog, the challenge can be solved by using a genetic algorithm. This project is just a graphical tool developped in C++ with the SFML library, that helps for visualising the evolution of an initial population.
The zone of interest is 7000m wide and 3000m high.
There is always a unique area of flat ground on the surface of Mars, which is at least 1000m wide.
Every turn, depending on the current flight parameters (location, speed, fuel ...), the user must provide the new desired tilt angle and thrust power of Mars Lander.
The game simulates a free fall without atmosphere. Gravity on Mars is 3.711 m/s².
For a thrust power of X, a push force equivalent to X m/s² is generated and X liters of fuel are consumed. As such, a thrust power of 4 in an almost vertical position is needed to compensate for the gravity on Mars.
Angle goes from -90° to 90°. Thrust power goes from 0 to 4.
A successful landing is made when the shuttle :
- land on the flat ground (y coordinates are the same, given the consecutive points)
- land in a vertical position (tilt angle = 0°)
- has a vertical speed must be limited (≤ 40 m/s in absolute value)
- has a horizontal speed must be limited (≤ 20 m/s in absolute value)
Note : Response time per turn ≤ 100 ms
CMake version >= 3.2 is needed for building this project.
Open a Git bash at the root of the project, and follow the classic CMake build procedure :
~/mars-lander $ mkdir build
~/mars-lander $ cd build
~/mars-lander/build $ cmake ..
~/mars-lander/build $ cmake --build .
You can also directly use cmake-gui.
In the folder resources/data, you will find text files representing each level.
The first line represents the inital state of the lander :
xPosition yPosition xVelocity yVelocity fuel angle thrust
The next lines are the coordinates of a polyline, which represents the surface of Mars.
Considering the rules, you can create your own level by adding a new text file. In the method Application::createButtons, you can add a new button by appending the level name in the string vector.