#uk micromouse

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Squeeky (2003). Squeeky looks every bit like a mouse – a computer mouse that is. This wall-following micromouse competed in Techno Games 2003, and also UK Micromouse 2003 where the above video was recorded.

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Golden Eye (2002) by Ryan Chidley, Stanway School, Colchester, UK. Complete with a soft-mouse, Golden Eye - a wall following micromouse - won the 2002 Techno Games with a time of 38.22 seconds, taking the gold medal. Golden Eye 2 went on to win the 2003 Techno Games.

"A young boffin's creation outwitted all-comers in a national competition. Ryan Chidley's robot proved even faster than robots made by adults at the Techno Games. The 12-year-old Stanway School pupil built a micro mouse robot which could navigate itself to the centre of a large maze unaided. Ryan's robot called Golden Eye utilised two motors, a battery pack and two sensor switches to complete the task quicker than any of the other contestants. Ryan now hopes to build a robot which will be able to complete a similar task even faster than Golden Eye. As well as winning the first prize, a highlight of his day at Shepperton Studios was the chance for Ryan to see some of the robots from TV's Robot Wars." – Ryan's robot is a micro marvel, Colchester Daily Gazette (March 2002).

The video was recorded at UK Micromouse 2003.

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Mimi (2002) by Garath Visayas and Ana Call, Buckinghamshire, UK. Mimi the Mighty Intelligent Maze Investigator, is a left-hand wall following mouse that competed in the 2002 Techno Games. It came fourth with a time of 48.25 seconds.

"Mimi was extremely quick speeding across the maze, but it ended up going into the top right corner and within a dead end. Despite this setback, Mimi managed to speed across the maze but was very bumpy upon its approach with it hitting the wall constantly as it made its way to the exit with a time of 48:25 seconds." – Techno Games Wiki.

The video was recorded at UK Micromouse 2003.

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Lefty AKA Leftie (2003) by Ken Hewitt, UK. Lefty – a left-hand wall-follower – came second in the non-contact wall-following category at RoboTIC 2007, with a time of 54.64 seconds. It then came third in the wall follower contest at MINOS 2010, with a time of 56.65 seconds. The video was recorded at UK Micromouse 2003.

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Cool Y (2006) by Siew Peng Shorn, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore. Cool Y won the 2006 UK Micromouse Competition with a best time of 3.64 seconds.

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Fay-Mouse (2002) by "Sam and James", Buckinghamshire, UK. “When will I, will I be" … Fay-Mouse? This (mostly) left-hand wall-following robot took home the bronze medal at Techno Games 2002. The video was recorded at UK Micromouse 2003.

"Fay-Mouse started off well, navigating the maze at a decent pace. It avoided all the dead ends as it went around and got to the end in the middle of the maze, here it managed to do so in a rather decent time of 47:72 seconds, which was enough for bronze for the year." – Techno Games Wiki.

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Isambard I (2006) by Martin Barratt, UK. The first excerpt above combines video from UK Micromouse 2006 and MINOS'07 at the Royal Holloway, University of London, where Isambard I took part. It also participated in MINOS 2009 (see second video) coming in ninth.

"Many of you know that I have an unhealthy interest in Stepper Motors and doggedly persist in using them to drive my Mice. Stepper driven Mice generally have large and heavy batteries but does this have to be? Stepping Motors seemed to be a good choice, particularly as they were easily available and not particularly expensive. As an electronics engineer, I felt that I might be able to design a drive system that was both small in size and low in power requirements … which is incorporated into Isambard I." – Martin Barratt, Stepping Motors - they must be good for something, MINOS'07.

"At the 2007 Minos micromouse conference, Martin Barratt gave a talk about his stepper motor driving scheme. For best performance, steppers really need to be driven by a high voltage. However, the current will need to be limited to prevent the motor overheating. Normally this is done with dropper resistors which waste all the energy or with chopper drives that can be relatively complex. Martin has an alternative approach that provides the high voltage needed to produce fast step rates and the low current needed to reduce dissipation and keep the battery size under control. The essence of the method is quite simple. Stepper motors look like inductors to the driver circuit. The torque available depends upon the current flow through the coils but the rate at which the current can increase is proportional to the applied voltage. If you drive a stepper at low voltage and low frequency, it is perfectly happy. You will get adequate torque as the rise-time of the current will be a small part of the total step time. As you increase the step rate, there is less and less time for the current to rise and the torque suffers greatly. Simply using a higher voltage will result in the coils being over-driven severely. This will require a large battery and will make the motor overheat significantly. Martin’s solution is to have a two level power supply and a switch. At low speeds, or when the stepper is holding, the coils are supplied from a lower voltage. When a step is made, the switch connects a high voltage to the motors for a short period – long enough to get the current up to a respectable value quickly enough to ensure the motor responds quickly." – Peter Harrison, Bi level stepper driver.

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Kaasjager "Cheese Hunter" (2008) by Coen Roos, Netherlands. Kaasjager, or "Cheese Hunter" in English, came seventh in the 2008 UK Micromouse competition with a best time of 40.46 seconds. Kassjager was a stalwart of the UK micromouse scene, and the video excerpt is from RoboTic 2011.

"Kaasjager was designed and built by Coen Roos, a retired employee since 2001 of the ‘Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research’ TNO in Delft where he was involved in electronics design and instrumentation since 1970. He says he started the project in “2006 with little or no knowledge of the critical areas of the envisaged project”. The high level maze solving functions of his entry are performed in an Atmel Atmega32 microprocessor programmed in C++ while the low level motor control functions in a PIC16F870 are programmed in assembly. Low cost motors are used with a single 400 mAh cell for power. Part of the external gear reduction is a 1 quadrant encoder (no turn direction) using a slotted opto and a gear with increased tooth depth providing a resolution of ~ 1 mm. Three infra-red sensors are used to measure the relative distance to the left, right, and front walls. The mouse measures 105 mm(L) x 66 mm(W) x and 88 mm(H) with a mass of 280 grams."– Green Ye, APEC 2013 Mice.