Micromouse - competition for small robots

Micromouse is a contest for small robots to search for a path to the center of the maze with a size of 16x16 cells. The event is popular in many countries, especially in the UK, Japan and South Korea. The labyrinth is a grid of squares of 16 pieces in length and width, each square has a wall size of 18 cm and a height of 5 cm.



The mouse is a fully autonomous robot that must find the way to the center of the maze. To do this, he needs to track his own location, discover walls and explore the maze. Once the mouse reaches the goal, it performs a reverse maze search until it finds the best route from the beginning to the center. After the optimal route is found, the mouse will reach the center very quickly.
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The robot can accelerate to three meters per second. Currently, the robot only needs a few seconds to achieve the goal, depending on the design of the maze.

Mice can use different search algorithms. The most popular are, of course, A * and Bellman’s variations of the algorithm.

The figure shows that it is important to find not only the shortest path, but also to optimally calculate the trajectory of motion. In the upper right corner, instead of turning, the robot goes straight, without losing time for extra turns.

Electronic mice themselves look different:






In the video, the robot reaches the target in 3.921 seconds.