MITEE 8 (1995), by David Otten, MIT. MITEE Mouse 8 came 2nd in the 16th All Japan Micromouse Competition in 1995, losing to Ssing Ssing 3. The video is an excerpt from "UK Micromouse 1998."
"One of the fastest micromice, MITEE 8 by David Otten of MIT, contains two DC motors with encoders, six 225mAh NiCd rechargeables and weights about 200 grams. Side sensors consist of infrared emitter and a PSD sensor, whose output is proportional to the distance independent of reflectivity of the surface." – A Survey of Robotic Competitions, by Richard Balogh.
"Triangulation sensors [were] pioneered by David Otten. These sensors consist of a narrow beam emitter coupled with a Position Sensitive Detector (PSD) which has a lens in front of it. The idea is that the emitter illuminates a spot on the wall and then the lens images the spot on to the PSD. As the distance between the sensor and the wall changes, the location of the spot on the PSD moves. By determining the location of the spot on the PSD, you can tell how far the wall is from the sensor. What is super nice about this approach is that it is wall reflection intensity insensitive. The downside is that it requires precise location of the emitter, detector, lens and two trans-impedance amplifiers per PSD." – Micromouse Sensor Design, by Harjit Singh.
"Mitee Mouse 8 is another micromouse from David Otten of MIT in collaboration with Tony Caloggero. It is driven by DC motors and gets its power from six 225mAHr NiCd batteries. Total weight is about 200g. The sensors are side-looking and use an assembly consisting of an IR emitter, lenses and hamamatsu position sensitive detectors. A spot of light is created on the wall and its image focussed onto the PSD. The result is an output that should be independent of the reflectivity of the walls and proportional only to distance. Demonstrated linearity and range of these sensors is remarkable. The underside view show encoder disks attached to the wheels for velocity feedback. Separate encoders 9with the small black tyres) are mounted just inboard of the drive wheels for distance/position sensing." – Pete Harrison.