PIL: Image to array of values

[Thomas Weholt]

Hi,

I was wondering if I could use something like PIL to take a image in
say 3 tones of gray and analyze the picture so that the value of a
pixel corresponded to a value in a python array or list of tuples?

Ex. 

I draw a image in three tones of gray. The lightest symbols water, the
middle tone ground and the darkest mountains. then I analyze the
image, pixel by pixel, and puts the result into a list with x and y
info. If the pixel is dark, I put the values of the x and y coord. and
the terrain value to 2 for mountain. Something like that.

Is there any other way of doing this?

 What I want is to draw the terrain/map in a plain drawing-app and
then use the image as foundation for a AI-simulator where robots learn
how to move in the generated terrain, remembers paths and how to get
from one point on the map to another. 

Thomas