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RE: Steam

Sorry - for decades the rules have said that the mouse must 'negotiate the
maze - no jumping etc'.  

One proposed gizmo in the early days was to use a high-mounted camera and
map the maze as a panorama - something the Finnish Microsaurus did by sonar.

Now that video cameras are so small, how about it?


Cheers

John
-----Original Message-----
From: A Johnstone [mailto:adrian@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, 30 June 2000 1:39
To: micromouse@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk
Subject: Steam



I think a non-polluting steam engine would be possible - those early
steam locos used on the Metropolitan railway had condenser bells over the
smoke stack which collected most of the steam and coal smoke. One can run
small engines off of those little lighter tablets which burn completely
clean. Then we just need to collect the waste steam.

Possibly for the duration of a run, one might get away with a large
balloon in which to collect the output from the cylinder. The only
problem is that this would then constitute a hot air balloon, so the mouse
might take off.

Come to think of it, have we put a clause in the rules requiring the mouse
to stay in contact with the floor of the maze? Surely the fastest way to
get to the centre would just be to fly up and over in a straight line?

                                  Adrian
                                     
Dr Adrian Johnstone, Senior Lecturer in Computing, Computer Science Dep, 
Royal Holloway, University of London,  Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, England.
Email a.johnstone@rhbnc.ac.uk Tel:+44(0)1784 443425 Fax:+44(0)1784 439786
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