Micromouse
Meeting #2
PROGRAM DETAILS, APPLYING FOR FUNDING, OVERALL SYSTEMS
First thing’s First:
Teams!
There were a lot of you this year.
This Year’s Program



$75 deposit

$250 in funding from IEEE

Must traverse 16 maze cells, which must include right turns, left turns,
and dead ends.
$150 deposit

$500 in funding from IEEE

Solve the maze! Easy, right?
Almost all the teams that signed up went for the basic budget
In the Past…
Get together
with team
Pros
• Flexible
• Provides freedom to teams
• Simple and Efficient
Cons
• Provides little accountability
• Teams unlikely to finish
• Funding can be wasted
Create details
BOM (Bill of
Materials)/Parts
List
Submit Parts List
for funding
approval
Build Mouse,
Compete
Meet Milestones
New System
Get together with
team
Plan out approach
for Micromouse
Build Mouse,
Compete!
Create a BOM/Parts
List
Submit
Hardware/Software
Preliminary Design
Funding Approved
IEEE will review
designs for validity
and correctness
New System

Pros

Ensures teams have completed preliminary design, not just parts, before
proceeding

Allows motivated teams to receive more feedback from IEEE

Teams are actively engaged with officers about design requirements

Emulates a “real work” environment, the key being design reviews


They won’t be too crazy in depth, but we are doing this to ensure that teams
are serious about creating a working mouse.
Cons

We do a lot of work

Can be a little micro-management-y

We will try to avoid this as much as possible. We are here to help you and
give overall guidance, not to micromanage.
Things You Need

When applying for funding, we will request three documents


Parts List/BOM with datasheets for active IC’s and parts

List of all the parts, part number, cost, and link

Datasheets for all active parts
Preliminary Hardware Design


Schematic Outline of hardware I/O systems
Preliminary Software Design

Quick, high-level drawing of software plan
Sample Parts List
Sample Hardware Design

This is a very crude hardware I/O
layout


Probably about 80-90% of what we
will be looking for in your design
Things missing from this design

Labels on pin headers

Details of the encoders

Where are the motors?
Sample Software Design
For each cell:

Get sensor data
Determine where walls are
Decide movement:
Push move forward if not visited
Push move left if not visited
Push move right if not visited
Pop stack
Move mouse according to top of stack

High-level drawing of software
systems of the mouse

Feedback control (PID?)

Left/Right/U-turn decision making

Maze-solving logic overview
Algorithms

Floodfill

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~edam/
Reports/2001/DWillardson.pdf
Approval

We will review your 3 documents as soon as possible and get back
to you on whether or not your design was approved

If it was not approved, we will give you advice on things to change and
revise. If necessary, the process will be significantly guided

Otherwise, once you receive approval, turn in your deposits. Once we
receive the deposits, your funding will be cleared and you can start
ordering parts

Depending on time constraints, we may set up an online submission
portal. If this doesn’t happen, then we will do it through regular email.

Time between submission and approval/revision should be < 3 days.

If it takes longer than 3 days, please e-mail us and we will get on it right
away.
Micromouse from a High Level

We are trying to build a small robot. Parts that are
essential to all mice are the following:

Microcontroller

5V Regulators

H-Bridges

IR Sensors (or maybe a different technology?)

Motors

Encoders

Batteries

Gyroscope (not necessary, but useful)
Microcontrollers

Small, low-power computers

Runs custom code that you compile and upload to the controllers

Almost all run C/C++ code

Provides multiple inputs and outputs

Things to consider in your microcontroller choice

Clock Speed

RAM/Flash memory

I/O (Analog or Digital)

Size

Power consumption/requirements

Logic Level (Voltage range)
Arduino Software

Common platform for microcontrollers

C/C++

Simple to use

Standard Arduino software used for:


All Arduinos

Teensy (2.0, ++, 3.0, etc.) with Teensy Loader
Modified Arduino software used for:

LeafLabs (Maple Mini)
Arduino Nano

16 MHz, 32KB Flash, 2KB RAM

$10
Teensy 2.0

Common choice, built-in USB

Arduino IDE

16 MHz, 32KB Flash, 2KB RAM

25 I/O

$16
Teensy 3.0

Built-in USB

Arduino IDE

48 MHz

34 I/O

3.3 V logic level

$19
mBed

Web-based compiler

96 MHz, 512KB Flash, 32KB RAM

25 I/O

$60
Maple

72 MHz

Runs Arduino code

$45 (Mini is $35)
Maple Mini
Microcontrollers

Find more information online! Useful links here:

Arduino


Teensy


http://pjrc.com
mbed


http://arduino.cc
http://mbed.org
LeafLabs (Maple Mini)

http://leaflabs.com
What’s next?

E-mail us at micromouse@ieee.ucla.edu with your preliminary
choice of microcontroller by next Wednesday, October 30th!

Include a short blurb including your reasoning/theory behind why you
chose the one you did

Meet with your team! This is only a little bit important, except for the
fact that it’s really important.

We will be designing and planning out our future lectures. A
schedule will be sent out by e-mail.
Next Week


Next week’s lecture: Motors and Encoders

What are motors and encoders?

How are motors controlled?
Powering your mouse

Attaching an AC 120V to your mouse is not ideal

Batteries will probably work better

Power consumption, voltage, current, etc.