Simulate remote Robot movement

Question

I am working on a assignment which has given by my tutor where he showed me a demo project which developed by using Java but i don't have any experience in java but i do have few experience in C# and i have to complete given requirement such as

1. Using Socket Technology
2. Client/ Server Communication protocol

Scenario: Need to design robot world with some of unknown objects where robot going to explore. so i know it is going to be some sort of animation like 2d games where i can develop using microsoft XNA and going to design remote control Interface with C# and passing parameter value using System.Net.Sockets Technology to move robot

Note: I know there is restriction when use System.Net.Sockets in Xbox but this project only going to use in PC.

My Question: Does anyone have any idea or comment about my assignment whether it is possible or not. If it possible please direct me with some guide. If it is not possible please guide me to technology where i can complete my assignment such as different programming environment or tool????

Answer 1

It's possible.

I would suggest breaking the problem up into some distinct pieces.

Simulation - this is purely simulating the position of the robot and the environment around it. Completely ignore anything related to graphics with this task. Focus in on just the maths involved. e.g. If my robot is here and a rock is over there, is my robot touching the rock? As it's a 2D app, you might be able to get away with a lot assumptions and simplifications. e.g. the robot and the rocks can all be simulated via squares or circles.

(Circles are especially easy to deal with as it basically just involves checking that the distance between the centre of the robot and the centre of the rock is sufficiently large.)

Networking - Create two simple console apps and get them to communicate via the sockets API. Once you've got this working then integrating it into an XNA game will be more obvious.

UI - this is where you can (finally) concentrate on graphics and user input. This sounds like it can be achieved with the regular Spritebatch draw calls and input reading methods (such as Keyboard, Mouse or GamePad).