Basic Object Movement AI? Need help, answers, anything.

Ok first let me say sorry if my title was not right. I'm not sure what to call this. I have no scripting skills at all. I only know how to change a few numbers here and there on existing scripts, I sux. Also i searched the forums and didn't see any posts along this line, if I missed them please direct me to them. TIA.

So what I am trying to do or wondering if it has been done or can be done or if there is anyone out there that can do it for me....

Ever seen a Roomba robotic vac? Well I made one (well an object) and wanted to see if it was possible to make it move like the real thing. Basically move in a zig zag pattern around a room, changing direction when it sees (or makes contact with) another object in it's path. Remembering where it had been recently would be great but I am guessing that would be too much to ask. The only other feature I would like to see included would be for the object to only run when an avie is in the room or within "X" proximity. This could be the owner or another avie. I just wouldn't want to eat up server bandwidth having these things run all the time if no one it there to see it.

I have been playing with the free "follow" script and it just kinda seems silly to have it only follow an avie. Am I going to have to stick with the "follow" script? I haven't seen any objects with what I have described above. The dogs, moogles and other pets all seem to just use the follow script and thought allot of objects could benefit from the script idea I am suggesting.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
First post so be gentle...
flame on...

-Techzen

"Do you think I'd get in trouble if I took a portable paint sprayer on a paintball field and said it was a "paintball flamethrower"? "---SenorBiggles

Well, i'm not going to get too in-depth with this, but you can have it use some sort of colision detect method to redirect it, and a sensor to detect other avatars nearby

also, it could use some small llApplyImpulse's to have it move around, and not worry about it going through other objects

wouldn't be extremely hard to code, but would need somebody who actually was interested.

Yep. Just use the collision detection inside of tiny child prims around the robot's 'waist' to let you know when/if you've just collided with something next to your robot.

www.badgeometry.com/wiki/

Thanks for the info and the link. It's cool to know it is possible and worth trying. Looks like I have allot of reading ahead of me.