Taiwan 2011 Day 4

GPS track for day 4 of the 2011 trip to TaiwanWhile there are several flights available out of Taiwan, it was convenient for me to take the late, overnight flight. It does not leave until 10:45pm so that gives an entire day in which to visit some more of the island. Efficient transport and a small island make it quite possible to go just about anywhere. This time, I chose to take the cable car up to the mountains near Taipei Zoo. (more…)

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Taiwan 2011 Day 3

GPS track data from our tour day around northern Taipan 2011After the excitement of the contest day, we all had the opportunity to play tourist as we were treated to a day out visiting some of Taiwan’s attractions. This was a great chance to visit places in Taiwan with local guides and help to explain everything. While not a large island, Taiwan has much to offer visitors. The west is where most people live since pretty well two thirds of the land area is mountainous.

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Taiwan 2011 Day 2

Contestant stamp for Taiwan micromouse contest 2011Day two was Sunday September 25th – contest day at the 2011 Taiwan Micromouse and Intelligent Robotics Contest. After an intense period or preparation with the re-write of nearly all the code on on my mouse, it was time to put it all to the test… (more…)

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Taiwan 2011 Day 1

Taiwan 2011 Micromouse ContestWhen I last had the chance to visit Taiwan for a micromouse contest, I was pretty sure it would be the first and last such opportunity. And yet, here I am again, two years later, excited to be back in this fascinating country with such welcoming hosts.

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ROBOtic 2011

The 2001 ROBOtic event will be held at Millenium Point, Birmingham on Saturday November 19th 2011. The event starts at 10am. There is no entry fee and no need to register in advance. Just turn up with your robot or come along to watch. Contests include: Maze solving micromouse, Wall-followers,…

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Site Rebuild

Having had enough of the pain of posting in Drupal I have moved the site back to WordPress. There will probably be a bit of random alteration going on for a bit until I tire of the novelty. A major change is the separating out of the forum to a…

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Worlds Most Powerful Cortex Microcontrollers

STMicroelectronics, today announced the introduction of its new STM32 F4 series of microcontrollers. This extension to the STM32 platform is based on the latest ARM Cortex-M4 core, which adds signal-processing capabilities and faster operations to the already outstanding portfolio of STM32 microcontrollers; the new series, which is available now, reinforces ST’s leadership and claims the title of highest-performance Cortex-M processor-based microcontroller range in the market.
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Maze solver too slow and other problems

Two major bugs turned up in the micromouse Decimus 2 since yesterday afternoon. Each was fatal. The maze solver bug was a surprise, the other was an example of the stupidity that I can manage when I put my mind to a problem…
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Taiwan 2011 Preparation

In a few days, I will be on a plane to Taiwan for the 2011 Taiwan contest. After the disaster that was the UK summer contest, I have been working hard on Decimus 2 in the hope of having a decent mouse for the contest… (more…)

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Correct for errors in a cul-de-sac

While the micromouse is exploring the maze, there are plenty of opportunities for it to make mistakes and end up out of position somehow. Equally, there are plenty of places where there are opportunities to correct any errors that have occured. The single cell cul-de-sac or dead-end is a perfect place for both. (more…)

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