Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:15145 uw.general:1938 rec.models.rc:3750 comp.realtime:963 sci.misc:4502 Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!watmath!mwtilden From: mwtilden@watmath.waterloo.edu (M.W.Tilden, Hardware) Newsgroups: sci.electronics,uw.general,rec.models.rc,comp.realtime,kw.micro,sci.misc,uw.cs.eee Subject: North American Micromouse Championships: Results Message-ID: <1990Oct23.003810.1550@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 23 Oct 90 00:38:10 GMT Distribution: sci Organization: University of Waterloo Lines: 129 The North American Micromouse championships were held on Oct 13 and 14 at the Ontario Science Center in Toronto, Canada. The competiton this year was sponsored by the IEEE and the University of Waterloo which provided the maze platform. For those that don't know, the micromouse competition, now into it's eleventh year, is an open competition to build a robot mouse which can get from the outside of a 16x16 maze to the middle in the shortest possible time. North american competitors range from high school and University students (usually using the MAPPY kit mouse from NAMECO) to robot hobbyists with some *really* neat toys. Competitions range themselves from the local to the national to the international (the Japanese, for example, are nuts on the game). The North American championships for this year featured seven mice from 5 teams. The overall winner was MITEE 6 from MIT with a fastest run time of 13.8 seconds. The teams, in order of finishing were: MICE: MITEE 6 and MITEE 3 TEAM NAME: MIT Mouse. ORGANIZATION: MIT Electrical Engineering. MEMBERS: Dave Ottman, Jimmy Ottman (age 6-3/4) and Tony Telegero MICE: MOUSEMOBILE 2 and MOUSEMOBILE 1 TEAM NAME: - ORGANIZATION: University of Montreal (Canada) MEMBERS: Martin P'Otte and Louis Je'Fwa. MICE: RATFINK 1 TEAM NAME: The Ratfinks ORGANIZATION: California State University (Long Beach) MEMBERS: Kent Sweeny with Ray, Takashi, Paul, Dora, Chris and Ron on video. MICE: HDL 1.00 and Solaroller 2.0 3 2 TEAM NAME: The Mild-Mannered Mad Scientists Society (M S ) ORGANIZATION: Hardware Design, University of Waterloo MEMBERS: Mark Tilden MICE: ZETA 3 TEAM NAME: Team Zeta ORGANIZATION: Orange County, La Palma CA MEMBERS: Harjid Sing and Jim Rawthorn The competition went very well with MIT taking home honors and first, University of Montreal taking home the Canadian Championship, and the Ratfinks taking home the MAPPY kit mouse trophy (they were the only MAPPY entry). Most original mouse went to Waterloo for making a mouse which didn't rotate, didn't use optical sensors and didn't use a processor (the first ever to do so). Waterloo also took home recognition for the cheapest mouse ($41.00 including batteries. Compared to $12,000.00 for MITEE 6) and the slowest mouse (a solar powered unit which would solve the maze in as little as a half year). The actual runs were very impressive. MITEE 3 (the current world champion) did not do as well as it's younger brother MITEE 6 because the maze floor was a little slicker than the team was used to. MITEE 3's over the wall sensors added significantly to it's upper body inertia and thus had to run slower to maintain floor traction. MITEE 6 was very impressive with it's chipmunk-like darting from position to position during it's mapping phase. It's final run was facinating as the mouse, the maze now memorized, cut corners to get to the center in record time. MITEE 6 featured side mounted optical sensors to find walls but because it had no over-the-wall sensors took marginally longer to map the maze. As the maze this year was rather inordinately difficult and long, the low, sleek MITEE 6 was a shoe-in. The Montreal mice were the only other competitors to actually make the middle of the maze. Following adjustment of the lighting conditions so the optical sensors could make out the maze walls properly, Mousemobile 2 beat out it's older stepper-motor version by over 10 seconds. The other competitors did not finish due to various software/hardware problems. For example, the Ratfink mouse kept getting caught up on a .5mm crack on the maze floor, and the Waterloo mouse could not seem to figure it's way out of tee-junctions. There's no such thing as ideal conditions. Micromousing could be considered to be the Nascar Circuit of the robot world. As such it was disappointing to see just how few competitors there actually were. As the Waterloo entry proved, you don't need lots of money or development tools, just an idea for a high speed mouse that falls within the rules. Typical prize money is around $1,000 a shot. With over 4 national and international competitions a year, the MIT team is pretty much breaking even with their continual wins. Money is a small incentive compared to discussing ideas with people who always seem to solve the problem in different ways. Competitors are extreemly open about their design, program, algorithms and component sources. It's a great 'meeting of minds' forum and I urge anyone who can enter to enter. The next North American competition is in Dallas at the end of Febuary and the next Canadian competition at the end of March. Before long, videos of this last competition plus "how to" documentaries will be available so you too can get your start in micromousing. Pending interest, I'll post when they'll be available. For more information on Micromousing (rules, past mazes and times, etc.), contact the North American Micromouse Association (NAMA) at: MICROMOM aka. Sue Rosenbaum 1086 Central Ave. Plainfield, NJ 07061 USA Or call (201)757-6749. $25 will get you details plus the semi-occasional newsletter. I'd like to point out that now that Waterloo University has a maze to work on, we're hoping to see many entries over the coming years. And now that we have videos to study (including close-ups of the competitors hardware) we can guage ourselves against international competition. Hopefully. Is all. -- Mark Tilden: _-_-_-__--__--_ /(glitch!) M.F.C.F Hardware Design Lab. -_-___ | \ /\/ U of Waterloo. Ont. Can, N2L-3G1 |__-_-_-| \/ (519) - 885 - 1211 ext.2454, "MY OPINIONS, YOU HEAR!? MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"