Our Own Micromouse

by Frank Hludik

It’s always exciting to work with students on their senior projects. From the start of this project to the finish line, the Micromouse project was no exception. Mark Sinclair, 1999/2000 president of the IEEE chapter at UNH, found information about the annual IEEE sponsored Micromouse competition. The first part of the project involved designing and constructing an autonomous robot that could solve a random maze. The second part, and the most exciting, was to enter the "mouse" in the IEEE competition; competing against other colleges and universities to determine whose "mouse" could solve the maze (a challenge in itself) in the shortest period of time (the real challenge). UNH’s reputation was at stake.

Mark got the project off the ground. He found two classmates, Daren Keller and Matthew Blake, and formed the Micromouse team. So the three-some Mark "JUST A FEW MORE LINES OF CODE" Sinclair, Daren "IT WILL NEVER WORK" Keller, and Matt "CAN'T KEEP MY HANDS STEADY WHEN SOLDERING" Blake started what will hopefully be an on-going UNH Micromouse program.

There was much work to be done. A software based mouse/maze simulator needed to be coded; the 10’ X 10’ maze with its hundreds of wall sections needed to be built; and the Micromouse itself needed to be designed, prototyped, constructed, and tested. Mark developed the mouse/maze simulator in QuickBasic to try out maze solving algorithms. An algorithm was found that would be suitable for the Basic Stamp microcontroller that controlled the Micromouse. After many hours of sawing, sanding, drilling, and painting Daren, Matthew, and Mark completed the wooden maze to IEEE contest specifications. I was "amazed" that they were able the construct the entire maze before fall classes began.

The three team members worked well together. Mark became the team leader and the Micromouse design responsibilities were easily decided. Mark focused on the microcontroller section, Daren on the motors and driver circuits, and Matt on the sensors to detect wall location. All the specific details of the project are available at ttp://www.ece.unh.edu/IEEE. Choose Links then Micromouse to read the details of their project.

Well, you are probably wondering who won the contest. On April 22, 2000, the project members loaded up their vehicle at 5:30 am and headed to Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont for the IEEE Micromouse competition. After nine months of work, it was time to put their mouse to the test. While traveling to the competition, the members encountered crater sized potholes in the road caused by the torrential rains. In Vermont, the rain had changed to snow and the team members had to struggle to stay warm due to the brisk temperature. Upon arriving at the competion site, the project members found that there were very few people around the campus as it was Easter weekend. After a brief search, the team members located the Norwich University Electrical Engineering Department. The project members inquired about the Micromouse competition and received a rather surprising answer. Due to Easter weekend, the event organizers had rescheduled the Micromouse competition for April 7, 2000. The team members thus concluded that they were victorious because their mouse was unchallenged at the competition. A three hour ride back to the University of New Hampshire campus was all that remained for the team members to complete their project!

Although it was a heartbreaking ending to the project for this year’s team, much valuable project experience was gained. Mark, Daren, and Matt did win first prize for Best Project Presentation at Senior Projects Day. Congratulations to the 1999/2000 Micromousers, it was a pleasure to work with these three engineers. Next year’s 2000/2001 Micromouse team members are James Szymcak and Karen Tuttle.