We often tell beginners that they can learn a lot by building a non-contact wall following micromouse. If it can keep track of where it is and knows when it is in the centre of the maze, most of the hard problems have been solved. To get to that stage, you need working sensors, reliable motor control and good information about the maze and the mouse’s position in the maze…
As set up for the last post, my micromouse Decimus is performing reasonably well on the ground. So far. The data plots show some features that are a little bit curious. However, my concerns over the apparent error in the endpoint were a little misleading. The recorded error is derived from the integral of the set speed and the total count from the wheel encoders. Thus, it does not represent an actual error on the ground…
With new tyres and a tweak to the acceleration profilers it is time to grab some data from Decimus again. The tyre seem to give me reliable grip up to 4m/s/s. They will probably manage more but I seem to have other control issues then. In any case, a dusty maze will soon put paid to that. For this trial, the mouse was commanded to move forward 4 squares with no limit on its top speed…
The Pit Shimizu tyres arrived today. I had to order them from Hong King and they took a week or so to arrive. These are PS-0300 according to the label and have 15° Shore hardness. This is a bit harder than the PN racing set that came the other day…
All fools day it may have been … but not at the Open University headquarters today in Milton Keynes. The ‘Robotics in the Curriculum’ event was attended by a variety of people from the commercial and education worlds. Looking for ways to develop the use of robotics in education, there was plenty of experience to be shared. I was there showing off micromouse and the related schools competitions to pretty well anyone who would stand still long enough to look interested…