My micromouse generates a lot of data. I log speeds, sensor readings, motor controller parameters. All sorts of things. Often that data just makes me worry. Most recently, I was noticing that there were some large variances at speed. Micromouse is a race - among other things. If you cannot…
All is set for the fourth annual Techfest at Birmingham City University. On Saturday 28 June 2014, the University will be host to a celebration of technology, engineering and science. As with previous events there will be a variety of activities during the day which is expected to include robotics contests for mini-sumo,…
Gyros drift. Everyone knows that and there are lots of ways to counter the drift. The autonomous flying vehicle folk will tell you that Kalman filters are the way to go – if you have time for all that maths. A complementary filter is simpler but will it help with steering a micromouse? (more…)
The micromouse contest has been around for some time now. You may be surprised at just how long there have been autonomous solvers of the problem. The modern contests began in the late 1970s and have run pretty much non-stop since. Possibly the earliest example though dates back to 1950. (more…)
To get the shortest possible run times, a micromouse must be able to make full use of diagonal paths. By running a diagonal, slow, tricky turns are avoided and the distance is much less. No competitive micromouse can ignore diagonals. Diagonal Paths From the point of view of a human…
A competitive micromouse must run a path made up of smooth turns rather than stopping for in-place turns. For novice builders of micromouse, this can seem a difficult task. Here is a method for creating a smooth path using data from flooding the maze. The method described here for generating…
State machines are very useful tools in any computer system. They make it easy to visualise and solve all kinds of problems. Any small robot is likely to have a use for several state machines. This introduction looks at some basic types of state machine and an easy way to implement…
On April 26th 2014, Birmingham City University was host to the 14th annual Minos event. The change of venue brought a number of advantages but otherwise, the weekend followed the usual format of talks and lectures on the Saturday and contest on the Sunday. The Saturday brought a good mix of…
Travelling to contests is great. Except for the bits and pieces that you need to lug around. For several years I have used a smart charger for my LiPo batteries. It is a fine charger but bulky. Along with its mains power supply it is about the size of a large laptop charger and needs several cables to join together. I decided to make a smaller, portable charging solution. (more…)
On Sunday May 4th 2014, the University of California, Los Angeles will be hosting the 2nd Annual All America Micromouse Competition. The venue is the UCLA campus at Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles. Entry is free and there are cash prizes to be won. To sign up, or find out more,…