Breaking the 5 second Micromouse barrier (Video)

micromouse 2009-84
Originally uploaded by Robots-Dreams.

Kato-san's new TETRA micromouse robot totally confounded competitors with his innovative 'out-of-the-box' design and record setting times during the early matches. Unfortunately the lighting conditions, or other unknown factors, defeated TETRA during the final Expert Class event.

There's been lots of speculation and debate over what times TETRA would have turned in running the Expert Class maze that fateful day. Some people felt, as we did, that TETRA could have broken the 5 second mark with a little extra margin to spare.

Now we know the answer....

Comments

[Chris]

I'm unclear on something, and I'm unfamiliar with this type of competition... What is the process? is this fully autonomous, and "found" it's way to the center? Or, was a path preprogrammed within the device?

Just curious...

Thanks!

[Robots-Dreams]

Chris,
Micromouse is totally autonomous. The maze isn't disclosed until the event begins. The mouse can make five runs. If everything goes well, its first run will be mapping the maze and figuring out the shortest/fastest path. Once it knows the maze, then it makes speed runs trying to get from the start to the finish at the center in the shortest possible time without crashing. You'll find a lot more Micromouse information, event reports, and videos via the MicroMouse category link in the left sidebar.

[soh]

Mind blowing speed.