Maze Building

To: micromouse@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk
Subject: Maze Building
From: Peter Harrison <Peter.Harrison@cannock.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 16:47:49 +0100
I have often wondered how the dimensions were arrived at. The only
conclusion I could come to was that, perhaps, standard board sizes for the
floor might be 10' by 5' rather than the inconvenient 8' by 4' in the UK.

As far as I can see, MDF and other 'easy' materials seem not to be
available in 12mm thickness.

How about the foamed PVC material used in plastic cladding and barge
boards? Probably too reflective and may not have suitable IR properties.
The cut surface would need finishing as the core of that material is, well,
foamed really :)

There is a plan 'somewhere on the Internet' for a micromouse maze. Can't
find it just now though.

Looking at the rule, I saw that there is a requirement for every post to
have at least one wall connected to it. With this in mind, could you make
wall sections that were 180mm long as well as the normal 168mm wall
sections and avoid the need for so many fragile posts? This virtually
guarantees rule compliance.

On that subject I noticed on Saturday that the maze was built so that every
cell had at least one wall. The rules I have are explicit about the 'each
post must have a wall' but there is no mention of 'each cell must have a
wall'. Which is correct?

oh, and on the subject of fantasy - can't one of you robot expert type come
up with a machine that will crawl around on a bare floor and bore out the
post mounting holes automatically?

Cheers

Pete


Pete Harrison
IT Services Manager
Cannock Chase Technical College