Pretty well everything is ready now to put together Decimus 4 - my latest micromouse. The last part to be done was the wheels. While I had the materials and the tools to make these, I certainly didn't have the time so I thought I might as well try having…
On Saturday June 16th, Birmingham City University holds the second annual Techfest event at Millenium Point in Birmingham. This will also be the 9th successive year that BCU hosts the UK micromouse competition. Once more there will be an International lineup of competitors including St. Josephs Institution from Singapore coming for…
Soon after listening to the presentation by Martyn Pittuck at Minos12 about Shapeways printed parts, I designed and ordered the motor mounts for my micromouse, Decimus 4. The design part was a bit harder than I expected because of a poor decision taken previously about the PCB outline but ordering…
Arguably the most important turn that a micromouse can perform is the search turn. That is, a simple 90 degree turn performed while the mouse is still searching the maze. While searching, the mouse generally has no idea what is waiting around the next corner. A decision has to be…
Preparation of Decimus2B for the UK micromouse contest in four weeks or so proceeds apace. The mouse is faster than it has ever been, it is more accurate than it has ever been and it turns better than it ever has before. Does it work well? Of course not. During…
When a micromouse corners faster, sooner or later, it will run out of grip. That doesn't mean it can not perform a useful turn but it will drift instead of neatly following a tangential path around the turn. To find out where the limits might be for Decimus 2B, it…
The Midlands Micromouse and Robotics Club, in conjunction with the Robotics and Intelligent Systems SIG will be hosting a talk by Roumen Ivanov on Monday May 28th at 18:30. The venue will be the normal club meeting area at Millenium Point in Birmingham. (more…)
A full report of the events at the 2011 All Japan Micromouse contest is now available here http://www.ntf.or.jp/mouse/micromouse2011/2011report.html. It includes plenty of video and information about the routes taken by the mice. Take a look
Preliminary details of the summer 2012 Techfest Competition Schedule, to be held at Millenium Point on Saturday June 16th, are now available from Birmingham City University. Time Event Location 08:30 - 11:00 Reception and Registration open Exhibition Space 10:00 - 11:00 Practice Sessions open All Areas 11:00 - 12:00 Drag Race…
As usual, on the Sunday after the Minos presentations, we hold a semi-formal micromouse contest as a bit of a taster for the upcoming UK summer contest. All the usual suspects were present but for some, this was a difficult year.