CHAPTER 2
 MODELING THE PROBLEM

 There were several areas that were addressed before programming the simulation

commenced. It was decided that the Visual C++ programming package would be used

for all programs and graphics. The next step was to determine how to represent a map

and obstacles contained within a computer program. Another element of the problem

was determining if line-of-sight is maintained between at least two robots. Finally, there

is the issue of determining the combined robot shadow areas, i.e. the region where line-

of-site communication is not maintained. All of these issues will be addressed in detail

throughout this chapter.

 It was desired to be able to represent this problem in the most general manner. The

generality will allow the algorithm to scale easily to account for larger maps or a greater

number of robots.

 A Map of Points

 A significant amount of effort has been put into how to represent a map and the

obstacles contained within. Assuming that the boundary edges of the map are known and

the obstacles are known, the initial step was calculating the area of the obstacles and

later, the shadow regions.