[HN Gopher] Micromouse: The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition on ...
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Micromouse: The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition on Earth [video]
Author : zdw
Score : 128 points
Date : 2023-05-26 17:39 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| piyh wrote:
| The ducted fans design would allow for racing down curved pipes
| and recreating F-Zero GX on a smaller physical scale.
|
| I've read about these competitions before, but he goes into way
| more detail than I could get as a casual observer. Very enjoyable
| video.
| goalieca wrote:
| 3-D mazes!
| Taek wrote:
| Fun to think how the rules could change if you made the maze
| 3D. Now jumping is allowed. Flying as well? Touching walls?
| Cameras can't necessarily see the whole maze anymore either.
| sdo72 wrote:
| I wish the idea of shortest distance isn't always the fastest or
| most convenient distance. I hope Google Maps can do this. I get
| frustrated that it keep giving shortest distance with lots of
| turns. Does anyone know?
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Path finding algorithms have had options to add penalty for
| turns for as long as I've been alive. I remember offline
| navigation systems allowing you to tune this (e.g. TomTom on
| the palm pilot, Microsoft Streets & Trips on the PC).
| apienx wrote:
| Derek's (AKA Veritasium) doctoral thesis is in YouTube science
| communication.
|
| Cool video.
| Scalene2 wrote:
| One would think that would make him shy away from deceptive
| claims like the implication that a collision between two LEO
| satellites puts GPS at severe imminent risk.
| Zeetah wrote:
| I've competed in Micromouse for years and my mouse and I appear
| in snippets in this video.
|
| Happy to answer questions.
| high_priest wrote:
| Are the "smooth cornering" solutions, presented at the end,
| complex enough to apply to a full size autonomous performance
| car? I am thinking about pursuing this area for my diploma, but
| I am not sure whether I will be able to complete prototyping
| stage if I can't afford a full scale vehicle for it.
| Taek wrote:
| What are some barriers to going faster?
| jmspring wrote:
| I recall we had a variation on this for a VLSI class I took in
| college. It taught me to how to segment knowns and unknowns
| around debugging - we had parts of the program we had tested,
| others we had not and isolated the unknowns to figure things out.
| koromak wrote:
| Something about this looks unreasonably fun. I'd love to get into
| this.
| iamcasen wrote:
| I did this competition in college, and I was obsessed! This post
| brings up a lot of nostalgia for me. I partnered with my EE
| friends, and I built the software. I devised my implementation of
| the flood-fill by writing VB scripts in excel spreadsheets. I
| would draw out the maze in the spreadsheet by coloring the cells,
| then I would use VBA to navigate the maze and color in the
| solution.
|
| Of course, the final implementation was written in C and loaded
| on a microcontroller. Back in those days my options were much
| more limited. I can only imagine what's available these days.
|
| I actually had the itch to tinker with micromouse again not too
| long ago, but I became dismayed with the difficulty in setting up
| a physical maze for the robot. I think access to the mazes
| themselves is the biggest limiting factor.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| > the difficulty in setting up a physical maze for the robot
|
| Couldn't you just buy a sheet of plywood, some wood strips, and
| a bit of wood glue? I mean, setting up a maze will take some
| time, sure, but it's hardly difficult. Or am I missing
| something?
| Frenchgeek wrote:
| I wonder if something like the "while True:learn()" game
| would allow to iterate robots rapidly...
| jsharf wrote:
| They need to be dimensioned and finished quite accurately.
| Most plywood has a slight bend to it. At the speeds and
| accelerations needed to be competitive, any imperfection
| would mean your car will fly off the track or hit a wall.
| lelandbatey wrote:
| Yes you can build your own, but it's tougher to get right
| than you might think. Those tiny robots are incredibly
| sensitive to the conditions of the maze, and you can get
| things wrong quite easily. You could build the whole thing to
| all the millimeter tolerances, then learn that oh no, your
| white paint actually has some undisclosed additives that
| absorb IR light instead of reflecting it, meaning you have to
| complete re-paint and re-sand all the walls in your 9-square-
| meter maze. Oops.
|
| You can do it, but it's still quite tough; in many ways
| tougher and less fun than building the mouse.
|
| Link to some helpful notes on building your own Micromouse
| maze: https://micromouseonline.com/micromouse-book/mazes-and-
| maze-...
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| Why would you construct an entire 9 square meter maze
| without testing a small portion? If only for having a
| physically convenient way of quickly validating hardware
| and software changes?
|
| Why would you paint the entire thing without testing the
| materials, or asking the organizers what paint they use /
| how to validate your own maze, or asking among fellow
| competitors?
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| This is the kind of thing that really makes robotics fun and
| exciting for folks. The blend of hardware and software. It is a
| lot of fun and the multiple disciplines make it more fun in
| groups than as a solo activity.
| robomartin wrote:
| > This is the kind of thing that really makes robotics fun and
| exciting
|
| Just in case you might not be familiar with this:
|
| https://www.firstinspires.org/
|
| Check out the three options under "Programs". I was heavily
| involved with this as a mentor (FRC) many years ago. Our team
| went all the way up to nationals. The program is international
| in nature. The national championship had teams from absolutely
| everywhere.
| mhb wrote:
| There also was the Trinity Firefighting Robot competition
| which was great fun, but, sadly, seems to have been
| discontinued.
|
| https://trinityrobotcontest.org/
| ChrisKnott wrote:
| Are you allowed to push off the walls? I feel like the fastest
| possible mouse would be one that just punched itself from wall to
| wall.
| stevehawk wrote:
| at least right now, those mice are dependent on gyros for
| navigation. wall to walk combat would no doubt interfere with
| that
| Zeetah wrote:
| You are not allowed to touch the walls.
| mrob wrote:
| No mention of this in the UK rule set at least:
|
| https://ukmars.org/contests/contest-rules/micromouse-
| classic...
|
| And even if you're not pushing off from the walls, additional
| wheels on the sides of the mouse could help get more traction
| by running along the walls.
| Taek wrote:
| Have there been thoughts to adjust the rules or make a
| parallel format that increases the amount if opportunity that
| competitors have to get creative?
| kllrnohj wrote:
| A violent uncontrolled stop like that would be hard to get your
| bearings for the next burst of acceleration. Also a continuous
| acceleration along a curve is likely going to be faster
| regardless.
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(page generated 2023-05-26 23:00 UTC)