All Japan Micromouse Contest 2013

The 34th All Japan Micromouse Contest was held at Nagareyama City Lifelong Learning Centre on November 23rd and 24th 2013. This was my fifth visit to this event – arguably the World Championships for the micromouse contest. (more…)

Continue ReadingAll Japan Micromouse Contest 2013

Japan 2012 Finals

The final day of the 2012 All Japan Micromouse Contest was exactly that. The three principal contests each had their finals event. Classic micromouse, half-size micromouse and line follower robot builders eagerly awaited the outcome of the big event. (more…)

Continue ReadingJapan 2012 Finals

Japan 2012 Qualifying

There are so many entries to the All Japan Micromouse contest that it takes two days to get the job done. For most, the Saturday is qualifying day. All the robots get to run and then best times are used to select the finalist. (more…)

Continue ReadingJapan 2012 Qualifying

MCU Car Rally

The line following contest at the annual All Japan Micromouse event is an exciting event. Simple rules, brutal timing constraints and a long, challenging course make for a great competition. While I already knew there were plenty of other robotic contest in Japan, I had not realised there was a whole line following event separate to the one I had seen. (more…)

Continue ReadingMCU Car Rally

Simpler Line follower sensors

Some time ago, I wrote about a way to work out your position when following a line based on the readings from a set of reflctive sensors. The method was a bit complicated and I was never happy with it. This should be a much better setup.

(more…)

Continue ReadingSimpler Line follower sensors

Bob’s second outing

IMG_3259

Bob has had a bit of minor surgery. I replaced the Darlington transistor motor driver with a L293D chip. Thing is, I forgot that the 293 has relatively large losses so Bob was much slower…

(more…)

Continue ReadingBob’s second outing

Line Follower First run

IMG_3259 All the bits are together and the processor code tested. Bob should know when he is on track and how far out he is when he is off track. Time to get him running on the test track…

(more…)

Continue ReadingLine Follower First run

Line Follower Sensors Setup

IMG_3258With the sensors installed and the robot pretty well complete, it is time to see if they can actually do the job they were designed for. the idea is that the line of sensors will be able to measure the robots offset from the centre of the line over as wide a range as possible.

(more…)

Continue ReadingLine Follower Sensors Setup