Senior Design Project

Micro-mouse for IEEE Maze Competition

Fall Semester 2007

Team Members:

Clay King
Josh Whaley
Nick Harriott

Description:

The goal of this design is to have a robot that is capable of winning the Spring 2008 IEEE robot maze competition. The maze is a 16 x 16 array of 18cm x 18cm squares. The goal is to reach the center from one of the four corners. The robot must be completely autonomous while it is in the maze. Outside communication of any kind is prohibited while the robot is competing in the competition. The robot must be under 25cm in width and length, there is no height requirement. The smallest run time, from start square to center square, is the winner. If no robot reachs the center, the robot that entered the greatest number of squares in the least amount of time is the winner.

Design Constraints:

The design constraints on the robot are mainly due to the fact that no more then $500 can be spent on the materials for the robot used in the competition. To address this constraint components were selected that could be found at lower costs because they were produced in higher quantity. The robot is also constrained by the size of the squares of the maze, the robot can be 25cm by 25cm in length and width but needs to be able to manuever through the maze which is limited by the maze dimensions. To address this constraint the chassis was design so that it could easily manuever around the maze and since there is no height requirement any parts of the design that could not fit in the maze aquares was raised above the sides of the maze walls. The safety of the users of the robot was also addressed by enclosing the batteries and selecting circuit board components that did not heat up much so that they could not burn someone.

Robot

Chassis

PCB

Sponsor: Montana IEEE Section
Advisor: Dr. Randy Larimer

Student design team for IEEE Robot Maze competition, Region 6. Montana Chapter of IEEE has provided the maze and support funds.