ACME Helium-3 Lunar Mining Operations Simulator

Introduction

The ACME Helium-3 Lunar Mining Operations (AHLMO) Simulator models our fully autonomous mining operations, consisting of:

• autonomous mining trucks
• autonomous unloading stations

AHLMO supports N mining trucks and M unloading stations that carry out mining operations over the course of a 72-hour mining "day."

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.15 or higher
• Conan 2.x package manager
• C++17 compatible compiler

Building AHLMO

AHLMO uses CMake and Conan for dependency management. Conan automatically handles the Google Test dependency.

Option 1: Step-by-step build

1. Install dependencies with Conan:

   conan install . --output-folder=build --build=missing

2. Configure the build with CMake:

   cd build
   cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=conan_toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

3. Build the applications:

   cmake --build .

Option 2: One-command build

From the project root directory:

conan install . --output-folder=build --build=missing && \
cd build && \
cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=conan_toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && \
cmake --build .

Build Types

For a debug build, use -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug instead of Release:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=conan_toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Note: You'll need to run conan install again with --settings build_type=Debug for debug builds.

Clean Build

To start fresh:

rm -rf build

Running AHLMO

AHLMO supports a small suite of unit tests; run them by invoking:

./build/acme-unit-tests

Run the AHLMO simulator with this command:

./build/acme-mining N M

where N is the number of trucks, and M is the number of unloading stations.

AHLMO will take about 3-1/2 minutes to simulate a 72-hour mining day, and will produce a log and several time-stamped CSV files suitable for further statistical analysis.

Notes

• Conan manages all external dependencies (currently Google Test)
• The --build=missing flag ensures Conan builds any dependencies not available as pre-built binaries
• No system-wide installation of Google Test is required

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Problem Statement

Objective

This simulation was developed to manage a lunar Helium-3 space mining operation, tracking the efficiency of mining trucks and unload stations over a continuous 72-hour operation.

Key Components

Mining Trucks: Autonomous vehicles that perform the actual mining tasks.

Mining Sites: Locations on the moon where trucks extract Helium-3. The simulation assumes an infinite number of sites, ensuring trucks always have access to mine without waiting.

Mining Unload Stations: Designated stations where trucks unload the mined Helium-3. Each station can handle one truck at a time.

Operation Details

• There are n mining trucks and m mining unload stations (configurable)
• Mining trucks spend a random duration between 1 to 5 hours mining at the sites
• Travel time between a mining site and an unload station is 30 minutes
• All trucks start empty at a mining site when the simulation begins
• Unloading mined Helium-3 at a station takes 5 minutes
• Trucks are assigned to the first available unload station
• If all stations are occupied, trucks queue at the station with the shortest wait time and remain in their chosen queue

Simulation Requirements

• Configurable to accommodate various numbers of mining trucks (n) and unload stations (m)
• Calculates and reports statistics for the performance and efficiency of each mining truck and unload station
• Represents 72 hours of non-stop mining
• Executes faster than real-time to provide timely analysis

Implementation Approach

This project is implemented in C++ leveraging object-oriented programming principles where appropriate, including:

• State machine-based truck control
• Event-driven simulation architecture
• Modular design with clear separation of concerns
• Comprehensive logging and statistical analysis output