Introduction to Micromouse

WVU IEEE Student Branch

9/24/2014

Stephen Itschner

What is a Micromouse?

Autonomous robot able to find its way through a maze in the shortest possible time

Maze is a fixed size, but configuration is unknown until the competition

Cannot receive any external input or control (limited to onboard hardware and processing)

Robot no more than 25cm x 25cm

Many Possible Designs

This Mouse Has Solved the Maze

How to Win

1 of the 4 corners is the starting block

Get to the center squares in the shortest time

The Only Info Going In:

Maze size is 16 squares by 16 squares

Each square is 18cm X 18cm (16.8 cm between walls)

Walls are 5cm high, red on top, white on sides (IR reflective paint)

Floor is black (IR absorbing paint) Goal will always be to reach the

center 4 squares

Rules The robot cannot:

Burn through, cut through, fly over, or climb over the walls

Damage the maze in any way

Leave parts of itself behind

Be powered by any flammable substance

The clock starts when the robot leaves the starting square and stops when it enters the goal square, measured from the front edge

Each robot gets 10 minutes to run the maze as many times as desired

The official time is the fastest run completed within the 10 minute period

Every time the mouse is touched after being set down is a 30 second penalty added to the fastest run

Slow robots that solve the maze place higher than fast robots that do not

Cash Prizes (vary by year)

Option 1: built from a commercial OTS kit

$300 1st

$200 2nd

$100 3rd

Option 2: built from scratch

$600 1st

$500 2nd

$300 3rd

An Expert Micromouse, Fast Run Only:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCLwICJKV4dw&ei=WRwjVMjhH4u3yATlhYKAAQ&usg=AFQjCNG2lzYRu1DWSXm-Bf7lTsi5c8iGvQ&bvm=bv.76180860,d.aWw

Path Forward for WVU IEEE

Scratch Team

Currently own a micromouse made from scratch

Pet project of the presenter since ~Sept. 2013

Needs to be debugged and programmed

Optimizations to hardware permissible

Full hardware and design brief available for those interested

Kit Team

Order known working hardware

Program the maze exploration and solving

Pros:

Known, working hardware

Online support

Potential for finding source code online

Cons:

Lower prize

Other teams have same advantages