Title: A calibration algorithm for maze micromouse continuous smooth turning

Authors: Jianping Cai; Zengwei Zheng; Minyi Guo

Addresses: School of Computer Science, Zhejiang University City College, 50#, Huzhou St., Gongshu District, Hangzhou, China ' School of Computer Science, Zhejiang University City College, 50#, Huzhou St., Gongshu District, Hangzhou, China ' Shanghai Jiaotong University, 800#, Huashan Road, Shanghai, China

Abstract: The excellent micromouse performance in a maze competition needs good sensing ability, superior walking ability, optimised intelligent algorithm and strong structure in micromouse design and manufacture. In micromouse competition, turning technology has significant effects on promoting a micromouse performance in maze walking process. The smooth turning algorithm has the advantage of finishing right-angle turns continuously without stopping. A micromouse would finish the turning more smoothly and stably while keeping a high speed, meanwhile, valuable maze solving time and spurting time could be saved for achieving better scores in competitions. In this paper, pros and cons of the algorithm are both presented. Furthermore, the main risk in smooth turning is that many single turning distance errors are accumulated to a big position error in the maze and would result in fault crashes to the maze wall. Therefore, a set of calibrating countermeasures to correct errors accumulated in continuous turning is provided as well.

Keywords: micromouse performance; right angle; smooth turning; calibration; continuous turning; embedded systems; maze competition; maze walking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJES.2014.063813

International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2014 Vol.6 No.2/3, pp.158 - 166

Received: 11 Sep 2013
Accepted: 11 Oct 2013

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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