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Lab

One continuing workspace: build a route, schedule the dinners and coordinate shared airspace.

Walk the hill →

Every week's case in one workspace. Pick a week on the slider, press the one change that week asks for, then open Change inputs to try your own.

Jump to a week
Ready

Week 4 · Payload, service, return energy and reserve

The fastest route may not bring you home

Which time–energy labels must survive until the return is checked?

Starting case ready.

Compare one change
Checks passed

#07: 472 s from take-off to landing; 80443 J including service and the unloaded return. 14557 J remain on landing.

Constraints: Complete plan; checks passed. Delivery quality: 1/1 on time. Search: Selected method completed; no global optimality claim.

Trip time (s)472
Trip energy (J)80443
Usable budget (J)80750
Slop Hill
0102030405060708091011121314151617181920KitchenSLOP HILL · 165 mNorth blockTOWER PASSAGESouth blockKitchen lowlandsNorth way roundSouth way roundElevation · low → hilltopN ↑ · metres east / north400 m
Map legend and layers

Kitchen = dispatch. Numbered homes mark delivery addresses. Teal doorstep markers are the exact delivery points; dotted paths link them to their houses. Grey streets are landmarks, not extra flight edges. Solid arrows fly out; dashed lines return. Select a table row or map marker. In 3D, drag to orbit and scroll to zoom; camera buttons work with a keyboard. 3D height is shown at 3× scale; labels use real metres.

0 · fastest · 447s / 84.75kJ · over budget1 · alternative · 468s / 81.42kJ · over budget2 · selected contour · 472s / 80.44kJSelected return · unloaded

Candidate colours show the outbound approach; the dashed line is the selected unloaded return. Candidate costs cover the complete trip, including service.

Route elevation · actual waypoint heights0m50m100m150m0 m · take-off5041 m · return

Read these lines with the route legend above. Distance includes the complete outbound and return trip.

Play or step through the recorded events.

Playback options and resources

Take-off and landing transitions are illustrative; recorded intervals give exact timing.

Inspect time and shared resources

Time and shared resources

Now 0 s

The vertical line marks the current time; outlined intervals are active. Select an interval to jump to its start. Intervals include their start and exclude their end.

A

0 s 3138 s

Inspect the evidence tables

Evidence from this run

3 rows
Complete trips · outbound + service + unloaded return
InspectCandidateOut (s / J)Service (s / J)Back (s / J)Total (s / J)Reserve check
0201 / 5653945 / 4500201 / 23708447 / 84747over budget
1222 / 5321245 / 4500201 / 23708468 / 81420over budget
2226 / 5223545 / 4500201 / 23708472 / 80443fits

Correct Pareto strategy, same input 472 s / 80443 J

Run identifiers

Engine lab-1.0 · hilltop · 5.82 ms · input fnv1a32:509d191a · model fnv1a32:0cb5e08e. Times are seconds unless this is a symbolic case.

How five model upgrades change the same instance

Five upgrades, one instance

The same kitchen, the same twenty orders, the same hill. Each stage changes the model, breaks something the previous stage relied on, and keeps the rest. What was right under an earlier model is not wrong in hindsight; it is labelled with its model.

  1. Find a route Weeks 1–3

    What changed
    The evening became a graph: streets as edges with a time cost, buildings deciding which connections are legal.
    What it broke
    The straight line from the kitchen to the customer.
    What survived
    The map. Everything after this searches it.

    Dijkstra from the kitchen to #07 on the hilltop: 201 s one way over 8 streets, 43 expansions.

    See this stage's workbench

  2. Find a route the drone can fly and return from Week 4

    What changed
    Energy is counted along the whole round trip, loaded out and unloaded back, and a steep climb costs more per metre of rise.
    What it broke
    Week 3's fastest route to #07: it does not fit the light drone's budget.
    What survived
    The search loop, now over (time, energy) labels that are kept until the whole trip is costed.

    Fastest round trip 447 s at 84.7 kJ; budget 80.8 kJ; flown: 472 s at 80.4 kJ.

    See this stage's workbench

  3. Order many deliveries for one drone Weeks 5–6

    What changed
    One order became six, each with a ready time and a promised time, and an objective: total lateness, then the time the drone is back, then energy.
    What it broke
    "Each order is feasible on its own" as a plan.
    What survived
    Each task's cost from week 4; the timetable only adds them up in an order.

    #01–#06 on one light drone: FIFO 0:00 late, back 18:42:38; earliest deadline back 18:45:38; swaps stop at back 18:42:38; the best of 720 permutations is back 18:42:38 — the same as the swaps found.

    See this stage's workbench

  4. Divide the work between drones that share two charging pads Weeks 7–8

    What changed
    Five drones of two types, and two charging pads that only two of them can use at once.
    What it broke
    "Available again" as "back plus turnaround": a drone's next start is when a pad is free.
    What survived
    The recurrence, with "available" set by the pad queue instead of the drone's own clock.

    See this stage's workbench

  5. Make five plans executable in one airspace Weeks 9–12

    What changed
    The corridor is a shared resource with capacity one; a state is a place and a time.
    What it broke
    Week 2's shortest paths for two drones that want the corridor at the same time.
    What survived
    Each drone's route, as the proposal the reservation table answers.

    See the corridor case above: two shortest routes, one conflict, and the two arrangements that pass the validator.

    See this stage's workbench