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Re: Schools' Competition

Could be good for Tecnogames. as they like to compare times year on year and
that's not really possible with a changing maze.

I don't think it would take a lot to build a wall follower out of the Nelex
kit

Maybe the slots in the posts should be mentioned in the rules.
It was a pity to see some very good mice fail because of them.

Derek
----- Original Message -----
From: A Johnstone <adrian@cs.rhul.ac.uk>
To: Martin Smith <M.C.B.Smith@uel.ac.uk>
Cc: <micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk>; <j.h.johnson@open.ac.uk>;
<nelex@learnfree.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: Schools' Competition



I certainly agree with the thurst of Martin's argument, but I wasn't
really proposing a new format, simply a standard mini-maze for an existing
format (our wall follower class). As has been noted elsewhere, schools'
designs are often not robust wrt bumpy walls and so on, and I think having
a very standard maze that they could definitely get round would be
attractive.

You know that I also favour having a standard 'sprint' maze for full maze
solvers that would test the dynamics of the vehicle and allow record times
to be established year-on-year. In that spirit, perhaps we should call
Duncan's proposed route the 'sprint wall-follower maze' and again use it
to establish world record times.

The comments about Robofesta are also welcome: perhaps Jeff could comment
on progress towards the 2004 goal for the list (attendees of MINOS'01 will
have heard Jeff's presentation but I have so far failed to put the
transcript up on the Web...)
                                   Adrian

On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Martin Smith wrote:

> I suggest that a new competition is only developed as a last resort.
> We should attempt to be compatible with existing contests in my
> view.  I think there are around 100 different robot contest formats
> from around the world.  Robofesta alone has 16 different robot
> competitions in it.  Some that have successfully evolved over the
> years are robotrace and robotrace junior (robofesta.net/e-
> contents/rules.htm).  [There are lots of micromouse links on this
> site].  Robofesta will come to europe in 2004 and through the
> BBC's Blue Peter some UK contestants are going to Japan to
> compete this year.  This is largely as a result of the work of Jeff
> Johnson (j.h.johnson@open.ac.uk).  Similarly probably over 1000
> Minimal Micromouse kits have been sold by Steve Wooley see
> (www.nelex.org.uk).  The kits cost around £10 each.
> Regards
> Martin Smith
> ---------------------------------
> Tel. +44 020 8223 2432
> Fax. +44 020 8223 2847
> ms@mcbsmith.com
> http://www.mcbsmith.com
> Room 1312
> Department of Electrical Engineering
> University of East London
> University Way
> London E16 2RD
>

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