Work in Progress - Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research – IEEE Micromouse Competition

This paper presents the research project conducted by a team of five undergraduate students for the IEEE Region 2 Student Activities Conference. A micromouse is being designed to find a predetermined destination when placed in an unknown maze in the shortest interval. The micromouse is required to meet the specifications provided in the 2010 Micromouse Competition Rules. This project applies the knowledge from different fields, such as computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. It is a great opportunity to utilize interdisciplinary theoretical fundamentals to create a physical project. This research is carried out in five phases: algorithm development with high-level programming simulation, choosing parts based on specifications, part testing, construction of the micromouse, and integration of components. The micromouse employed the flood algorithm to find the shortest path to the destination. A Java code simulation of the micromouse’s behavior is created to verify the algorithm and then is translated to C code to be implemented on the microcontroller. Testing is conducted on the components individually and implemented on the constructed chassis. Index Terms – Flood-Fill Algorithm, IR Sensors, Micromouse, Microprocessor, Stepper Motors