Decimus 4 is a four wheel micromouse in the same style as so many others that you see now. Until building it I thought I had a good idea what some of the problems might be. I was partly right... Having watched many four wheel micromouse runs since Kato-san so…
Most commonly, the speed and direction of the motors in a micromouse or other small robot will be read from quadrature encoders connected to the drive train. One of the great things about the STM32F4 processor is that it can read these directly. Quadrature Encoder Signals A quadrature encoder generates…
Lucky students at Indiana University might like to enrol on the [C - H]335 Computer Structures course run by Geoffrey Brown. If they do, they will be treated to a great introduction to the STM32 processor. The lab manual for the course is freely available to download. The course covers…
An essential part of setting up a new mouse is the proper alignment of the sensors. You micromouse sensors must have the emitters pointing exactly where you want them to and the detectors have to be aligned to get the best possible response. A simple paper target and an Infra Red camera can help get this right. (more…)
Micromouse sensors need shielding to work at their best. Here we are going to show you how to make a simple, flexible light shield for your micromouse sensors that will cut down the effect of ambient light and reduce leakage from the emitter. The problem with micromouse sensors The common…
Minos is with us again. It is now possible to register for the 2013 Minos event which takes place this year on April 13th and 14th at Royal Holloway, University of London. Our thirteenth weekend conference on micromouse and other robotics related matters follows the success of previous MINOS events. We…
Learn how you can calculate the standard deviation, or spread, of your sensor readings on-the-fly while collecting data without having to first record all the values and then do the statistics. Statistics based on the data from your sensors can tell you a lot about the system and the environment…
Designing electronic circuits takes knowledge and experience. Sooner or later, you have to put your idea to the test. Generally, this means building a prototype. Even with the best circuit simulator software, you ended up with unfriendly or expensive products. Or both. Now you can do a good job with…
If you are taking the DIY approach to coding for the ARM processors, you probably use the GCC ARM embedded toolset. This is available from a number of places. I just came across another distribution of this ARM toolset. One immediate benefit is that they provide pre-compiled binaries for Windows,…
You almost ceratainly have ceramic capacitors in your micromouse or other project. Are you sure you have them properly specified? Are they actually providing the value that you think they should be? This tutorial from Maxim Integrated gives an excellent guide to the ways that you can make sure that…