wall follower

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(robotics)

wall follower - A person or algorithm that compensates for lack of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past. Used of an algorithm, this is not necessarily pejorative; it recalls "Harvey Wallbanger", the winning robot in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail). Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a "finger" on one wall and running till it came out the other end. This was inelegant, but it was mathematically guaranteed to work on simply-connected mazes - and, in fact, Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to "learn" each maze by building an internal representation of it. Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an uncreative, bureaucratic, by-the-book mentality.

See also code grinder.

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No references found			WALL FOLLOWER - Originally an algorithm that allowed simple robotics - it found a wall and followed it around a room. TECHLIFE; Battle of the bands by Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)			wall anchor wall arcade wall base wall beam wall bearer wall bed wall box wall bracket wall cake wall chase wall cladding wall clamp wall cleanout wall clip wall clock time wall column Wall construction wall coping Wall Covering wall crane wall dormer Wall Doxey State Park wall effect wall energy wall flange wall follower wall form wall frame wall friction wall furnace wall furring wall gable wall garden wall grille wall guard wall handrail wall hanger wall height wall hook wall humping wall iron wall joint wall line wall liner Wall Materials Wall Newspaper wall off wall opening wall outlet Wall Painting wall panel			wall coping Wall Covering Wall Covering Wall coverings Wall coverings wall crane wall creeper Wall cress wall cresses wall cupboard Wall dormer Wall Doxey State Park wall effect wall energy wall eye wall eye wall eye wall eye wall eye, walleye wall eye, walleye wall eye, walleye wall eye, walleye Wall eyed Wall eyed Wall eyed wall fern wall flange Wall flower Wall flower Wall flower wall follower wall form Wall Forming Bodies of Type I Wall Forming Bodies of type II Wall fountain Wall fountain Wall frame Wall frame wall friction Wall fruit wall furnace Wall Furniture Outlet wall furring wall gable Wall game Wall game wall garden Wall gecko wall germander wall germander wall germanders Wall gillyflower wall grille wall guard Wall hack wall handrail wall hanger wall hanging wall hangings

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