svt-robotics

Purpose

The provided API returns a list of robots in a fleet. Each object in the array contains the robot's ID number, battery life, and xy-coordinates. The goal is to write an API endpoint that accepts a POST request of a load that needs to be moved to the provided endpoint. Example of POST request data:

{
  loadId: 231,
  x: 56,
  y: 39
}

A successful request would return the closest robot within 1-10 distance units from load. If more than one robot is returned, return one with the highest battery life. Example of returned data:

{
    robotId: 27,
    distanceToGoal: 7,
    batteryLevel: 30
}

Table of Contents

• Preview
• Walkthrough
• Installation
• Tests
• Documentation
• Review

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Preview

Here is how the application appears and functions in Insomnia.

Walkthrough

The following video shows the routes being tested in Insomnia.

• YouTube

Installation

The instructions for this project can be found here.

This project requires Node.js and other dependencies

• How to install Node

Navigate to the directory of choice using the CLI and then clone this repository:

git clone git@github.com:wolfskillobyte/svt-robotics.git

Use npm i to install dependencies.

Start the server

node server

Tests

The POST and GET routes can be tested through Insomnia or similar programs.

This project used Insomnia for testing

Documentation

• npm
• Express
• Axios

Review

This was a straightforward and fun back-end assignment that challenged what I would normally build with JS applications. Insomnia was a helpful tool in testing this data to provide an easier-to-read format as opposed to utilizing the console alone.

If I were to expand on this project, I would make an API front-end that would accept more GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE requests. A simple React front-end is also viable if this code were to be regularly interacted with by users or employees. React's useState feature would have provided a quick solution, but would have deterred me from challenging myself on problem-solving with JS alone. Because this was a smaller project, the code has been condensed to one file, although this isn't always good practice for scaling applications. If this were to become larger, I would seperate the routes from server.js by utilizing the aspects of the MVC paradigm, especially if a front-end was implemented.

If I were to improve upon the code I have written, I would focus on optimizing my code to find a better algorithm. Working with algorithms is less familiar territory, which made this challenge more enjoyable and rewarding, and I hope to learn more in the future.

Thanks for reading, all feedback is welcome.