rookmachine

Rookmachine is a concept in AI and robotics referring to systems that plan movements using rook-style actions on a grid. It is typically used as a simplifying abstraction for path planning tasks where the environment can be represented as a grid with obstacles. The idea is that from any cell, the agent may move any number of unblocked cells along the same row or column, incurring cost proportional to distance. Some variants restrict to a single-step move.

In computational models, rookmachine planning can be carried out with graph search on the grid's rook-move graph, dynamic programming, or heuristic methods. The simplified action set yields lower branching factors than general grid-based planning, enabling faster search on large grids but potentially reducing path optimality or expressiveness.

Applications include warehouse robotics in grid-like layouts, automated routing in city street networks approximated as grids, and puzzle solvers for rook-tour style tasks.

Limitations include mismatch with real-world dynamics where diagonal or curved movements are relevant, sensitivity to obstacle configuration, and possible suboptimal routes when long-range rook moves obscure intermediate states.

The term's usage is largely informal and appears in theoretical discussions and hobbyist contexts; there is no universal standard definition or implementation.