Tag: micromouse

News

Micromouse update 4, Makelangelo 7.3.4, Arm 3, and VR

2016-04-25 Dan

Today’s monday update is about Micromouse 3, Makelangelo 7.3.4, Arm 3, and VR.

Micromouse update 3

In a previous post I told you about the track we’re building.

Micromoue track walls

The walls and floor are getting painted. We estimate the track is 85% done. In the photo above you can see the micromouse maze walls and pegs slot fitting together. We’ll be able to set up practice tracks at VHS before the event and the full track on the day of the event. Register your contest entry free right now!

Makelangelo 7.3.4

Over the weekend Makelangelo software has a small upgrade to 7.3.4. The “start”, “start at line #”, “top”, “left”, “right”, “bottom”, and “go home” buttons are now automatically disabled until you hit the home button. This is to prevent user error at the start – they’re not meaningful if the robot hasn’t already found it’s starting home position.

I’ve been cleaning stuff under the hood for the next 7.4.0 update. Until now converting a picture automatically places the picture in one place on the drawing robot. The improvements move everything to one coordinate system and one scale. This means that the code for each conversion style more concise because the style converter doesn’t need to translate between machine coordinate system and image coordinate system. It also opens the door to moving, scaling, flipping, and rotating images before converting to lines. Who knows? Maybe someone will add Photoshop style layers and an undo/redo system.

Here are some of the style conversion options, all using a picture of an owl’s eye.

Makelangelo 7.3.4 boxxy style

Makelangelo 7.3.4 zigzag style

Makelangelo 7.3.4 voronoi stippling style

Makelangelo 7.3.4 pulse style

Makelangelo 7.3.4 Sandy Noble style

Makelangelo 7.3.4 crosshatch style

All these styles are in the Makelangelo software already. You can download Makelangelo today.

Arm 3

My long term project is the next robot arm. Here’s an early draft, cutaway in Fusion360 to show the inside of the wrist.

early cutaway of arm 3

The goal is a ~100cm arm with 2kg lift and +/-0.5mm repeatable accuracy. No easy task! It also has to have all wires hidden inside so that it has a good ingress protection rating.  When it’s ready it will ship fully assembled, like all Marginally Clever robots, and it will be driven from Robot Overlord.

If you’re a long time follower then you know my last arm used two electric pistons, much like a backhoe you’d see at a construction site. Now I need some help with a math problem: how do I maximize the range of motion?

VR

Making robots easier to use is always high on my list of priorities. I want to program the Arm by pushing and pulling the real machine. But what if I don’t have the real machine in front of me yet? It would be pretty sweet if I could just push and pull a virtual model. It seems to me VR would be a natural fit. When I look at the choices out there, I’m being offered only awful choices.

  1. TOcculus Rift is owned by Facebook and (I hear) it likes to phone home all the time with mysterious updates and information sharing. On the plus side they have C/C++ developer libraries. In theory a Java wrapper can’t be far behind.
  2. The HTC Vive wants all their support handled by Valve and Steam, which means I’d need to register as a Steam game developer just to access their support forums. It feels like a lie! I can’t find anything about their developer libraries until I register. Edit: Tom G @ Valve just sent me a link to the OpenVR library, in C/C++. Java soon?  Edit: JMonkeyVR is the Java interface. Yessssss!
  3. The Microsoft Hololens looks ridiculous on the human head, and since when does MS support Java?

Final thoughts

You can get more up-to-the-second news from Marginally Clever if you follow me on Instagram.

News

Micromouse contest update 2

2016-04-18 Dan

Monday again and I’ve got hot fresh tasty news about the micromouse contest.

Last week I posted about making the floor of the micromouse maze.  Since then we had some exciting moments figuring out how to make the walls and pegs.

Luke designed a jig that sits on the sled for the table saw and makes it easy to get the exact groove cut needed for the pegs.  We tried to make the pegs from 1/2″ birch ply but the material was too brittle and chipped to shreds.   In the video above you can see we’ve switched to MDF.

To keep manufacturing simple we used the exact same groove on the wall pieces.  The gap between each peg and wall is 3mm thick, 5cm tall, and 6mm wide.  As it turns out, a laser cut piece of acrylic is a perfect fit.  The acrylic comes with a protective layer on both sides.  The layer adds just enough material to make the fit snug so we won’t need any glue.  Excellent!

How many micromouse maze pegs?

Having a system to make walls and pegs is great.  How many do we actually need to make? The rules say there are 16×16 rooms with a wall around the outside edge. That means there are 17 * 17 = 289 pegs. What about walls?

Absolute maximum

Well, there are 16 wall segments to go across and 16+1 rows of walls, so that’s 16×17 for just the horizontal walls. times that by two to get the maximum number of walls, that’s 16x17x2 = 544.

Realistic maximum

In reality there won’t need to be so many walls. Every room has to be reachable from at least one other room. The easiest way to draw this would be a snaking S shape.

Now it’s easy to count them out. There are 16×4 wall pieces around the outside, and 15×15 pieces inside the maze. That’s 289 wall segments. Funny coincidence: that’s the same number of pegs!

Final thoughts

Next step is to paint everything regulation colors and get a timing system to record each race.

A big hello to everyone from Makerfair joining us for the first time. Hello!

Follow me on instagram if you want a to see the acylic pieces as they’re being made.

In the News

Micromouse contest update 1

2016-04-13 Dan

An update on the 2016 micromouse contest coming to Vancouver Mini Maker Faire June 11-12. The contest poster, tips, and details on the maze.

First, the poster. Please share with everybody!

micromouse 2016 contest poster

Second, here’s a great way to get around the 2s penalty for touching the robot when it’s in the maze.

Third, the maze itself is coming together. We’re having great fun building a maze that’s interchangeable and portable. This contest has been run in various places around the world for 30 years and yet no one’s published a satisfying tutorial how to build the track.

Special thanks to MicrmouseUSA.com for the photo of their robot.

News

Vancouver Mini Maker Fair 2016 Robot Contest

2016-02-10 Dan

Marginally Clever Robots is hosting a robot contest at the Vancouver Mini Maker Fair. Solve the maze and maybe win a prize! Read on for more details.

The Fair

The Maker fair this year is June 11-12, 2016. It’s a great weekend of robots, fire, lights, crafting, and much, much more. Marginally Clever Robots will have a booth and a maze (described below).

The Contest

The contest based on the the APEC micromouse contest and follows all the APEC micromouse contest rules. We have modified the maze dimensions. We’ve also and added prizes, eligibility requirements, and other fine print.

The Maze

The maze is a grid of 16×16 rooms. Each room is 15x15cm, not including the walls. The floor of the maze is made of pegboard. The 1/4″ OD peg holes are 2.5cm from center to center. That means in any given room there are 4×4 holes in the floor. Walls are made of 1/8″ laser cut wood pieces standing in the holes. All walls are either north/south or east/west (no diagonals). The “halls” of the maze will all be 6 pegs wide (~15cm), forming an 8×8 grid. The end of the maze is a square two times the width of the halls. There may be small gaps between wall sections and at corners. There may be open 1/4″ peg holes in the floor beneath the robot. The walls are 5cm tall. To keep wall segments from moving there may be connectors on the top of the wall segments. The starting position of the maze is in one corner of the maze, with the outside-most walls being on the south and west of the starting position.

The Robots

Your robot cannot alter the maze, leave the maze, climb above of the maze, study the maze ahead of time, endanger others, or leave things behind (eg breadcrumbs, parts). Your robot cannot fly. Your robot can look at, touch, or sense the maze in some other way (DIY LIDAR is very OK). Your robot can move through the maze by any system of locomotion you like except flight. Your robot cannot use combustion as a power source.

Each robot will be run one at a time. A camera and a clock will be used to record each robot’s time in the maze. Scores will be tallied. Robots are allowed to try as often as time permits and provided everyone gets a try. At the judge’s discretion an attempt may be stopped – for example, if the robot has stopped working, or is deemed to be unable to finish the maze in a reasonable time. Contestants are welcome to modify their robot on-site and try again. Only your best score will be considered for the final judgement.

Prizes

There will be one $100 prize for the robot that solves the maze fastest, a $50 prize for the second fastest, and a $25 for third fastest. Everyone who brings a entry will get a coupon to http://marginallyclever.com and stickers. Winners will be announced at close of VMMF 2016 (17:45 June 12 2016)

You

There is no entry fee for the contest, but you will have to gain access to the Maker Fair. You must register your name, email, and phone number with Marginally Clever no later than June 7th, 2016. All entrants agree to recordings of their robots and selves for media purposes and to ensure fairness of scoring. All entrants must be (a) legal age or (b) have a parent or guardian sign for them. Your personal contact info will not be shared without your permission.

Register now for free

These Rules

Marginally Clever Robots reserve the right to amend the rules. This is to protect the fairness of the contest, add clarity, and protect the safety of the everyone involved. This post will be updated to include the amendments.

Also

I am committing to keeping the Vancouver Hack Space open every Tuesday from 13:00-18:00 from now until the fair.
Come on down to work on your robot, rent a locker to store your machine, meet like minded people to form a team, and stay for the evening’s open house.