This is where the fun really begins. Contestants arrive for qualifying day at the All Japan Micromouse Contest. One contest will be decided completely today, the others have a qualifying phase which determines who goes through to the final tomorrow…
Friday is practice day. Well, half day would be more accurate. In the afternoon, the venue is open and the mazes and practice circuits are laid out for anyone to test their robot’s basic functions. Everyone is busy setting up, making sure things work as they should and getting a good look at the other entries. Since we had the morning spare, we went an watched the Real World Robot Contest first…
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The time had come. Get on a plane fly east to see what the the world’s best micromouse builders can produce. It is not all micromouse of course – there are line followers and autonomous metropolitan robots – all sorts of things. This year, I must pay more attention to some of the other contests. It is a fair trip. Door to door was about 22 hours and if you include the time before it is possible to check in to the hotel, it comes to an even 24 hours. Arrival in Tsukuba was at 12:15….
Time to gather the bits and pieces needed to take to the All Japan Micromouse Contest in Tsukuba. First job is to put it all in one place to see how much there is. Too much it seems. The gear is divided into two lots. One package goes in thehold in the main baggage. This is stuff that I could manage without if the bag failed to arrive. The other lot goes with me. This has to include everything I need to run the contest.