It doesn't know where it's going. It just knows it has to keep moving. Never backtracking. Never arriving. Always forward into the unknown, one street at a time, until the world runs out.
📦 Download Extension • 👉 Web Demo
Drunk Walker is a blind graph traversal experiment living inside Google Street View. It presses keyboard arrows according to the PLEDGE algorithm (Parametric Labyrinth Exploration with Drift-Guided Escape), exploring the digital world without a map.
The bot is blind — it doesn't know where panoramas exist until it tries to walk there. Every movement is physical probing of the graph structure. It produces the map by walking it.
| Browser | Download |
|---|---|
| Chrome/Edge/Brave | drunk-walker-chrome.zip (32 KB) |
| Firefox | drunk-walker-firefox.zip (32 KB) |
Install (Chrome/Edge):
- Download and extract the ZIP
- Go to
chrome://extensions/ - Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle)
- Click "Load unpacked" → select extracted folder
- Open Google Maps → Street View → click extension icon 🤪
Install (Firefox):
- Download and extract the ZIP
- Go to
about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox - Click "Load Temporary Add-on" → select
manifest.json - Extension loads until Firefox restarts
- Visit genaforvena.github.io/drunk-walker/
- Click "COPY BOOKMARKLET"
- Open Google Maps Street View
- Press
F12→ Console tab → paste and press Enter - Control panel appears → click START
The bot uses wall-following to guarantee exploration with each location visited at most twice:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FORWARD MODE │
│ • Face direction of travel (prev→cur bearing) │
│ • Move straight into new territory │
│ ↓ (All 6 yaws tried - dead end) │
│ TURN LEFT 120° │
│ ↓ │
│ WALL-FOLLOW MODE │
│ • Scan for LEFT exits (90-180° from forward) │
│ • Found exit → take it, resume FORWARD │
│ ↓ (Truly stuck) │
│ BREAK WALL │
│ • Retry successful yaw from graph memory │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| 6 Yaw Buckets | Street View divides 360° into: 0°, 60°, 120°, 180°, 240°, 300° |
| Forward Bearing | Always face direction of travel (prev→cur) |
| Cul-de-Sac Check | After 10+ straight nodes, verify not a false dead-end |
| Graph Memory | Records every successful movement for escape routes |
| Metric | Target | Real-World (v6.1.4) |
|---|---|---|
| Progress Ratio (unique/steps) | > 0.70 | 0.74 (1777/2385) |
| Steps per Location | < 2.0 | 1.34 |
| Max Revisits | ≤ 2 | ✅ Guaranteed |
Latest walk: 1,777 unique locations in 2,385 steps (74% efficiency, near-optimal PLEDGE performance)
The bot wanders without a master plan. Someone called it "Anti-Oedipus" (Deleuze reference about rhizomatic movement). They meant "Anti-Odysseus" (the hero who never gets home).
Turns out both work:
- Anti-Oedipus → No central map, just surface traversal
- Anti-Odysseus → Never returns home, each node ≤2 visits
It's a nomadic machine that produces the map by walking it.
📖 Read the philosophical framing →
- HOW_IT_WALKS.md — PLEDGE algorithm deep-dive
- WALK_ANALYSIS.md — Real walk metrics and optimization
- ALGORITHM.md — API reference (engine, wheel, traversal)
- THE_TRAVERSAL_PROBLEM.md — Theory of blind graph traversal
- src/README.md — Developer guide (build, test, deploy)
- SMART_NODES.md — Node classification (NEW, JUNCTION, DEAD_END)
- SURGEON_MODE.md — Efficiency-focused mode
- TRANSITION_GRAPH_LEARNING.md — Learning connectivity
git clone https://github.com/genaforvena/drunk-walker.git
cd drunk-walker
npm install
npm run build # Generates bookmarklet.js + extension bundle
npm run extension:package # Creates ZIP files for release
npm test # Run 150+ tests| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| START/STOP | Begin or pause exploration |
| Steps | Total movements made |
| Visited | Unique locations discovered |
| Pace | Decision speed (0.5s - 5.0s) |
| 💾 Path | Export walk as JSON |
| 📄 Logs | Export session logs |
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Extension not showing | Ensure you're on google.com/maps in Street View mode |
| Not starting | Refresh page, check console (F12) for errors |
| Panel not visible | Resize browser window, try STOP → START |
| Firefox add-on missing | Reload from about:debugging after browser restart |
- ✅ Runs entirely in your browser
- ✅ No data sent to external servers
- ✅ No cookies or tracking
- ✅ Public domain (CC0)
Not affiliated with Google or Google Maps. This is a technical experiment for fun, not a scraping tool.
| Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| v6.1.4 | Browser extension release, camera alignment fix, loop detection |
| v6.1.0 | PLEDGE wall-following implementation |
| v5.1.0 | Smart nodes, enhanced transition graph |
📦 Download Extension • 👉 Web Demo
Created with confused ❤️. The bot explores by following the left wall.