2008 Woodie Awards
Mini-robots maneuver through maze
By: Elizabeth Varin
Issue date: 5/2/07 Section: News
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Of Chico State's three robots, Juanito 5 Jr., Ahmad Al-Kandari and Remington Plastic, only one made it through the maze.
Bret Bosma, Vince Frey and their robot Remington Plastic won fourth place with a time of 2 minutes, 3.8 seconds and a 30-second penalty.
UC Davis' robot, Rat Zilla!, won with a time of 38.9 seconds, beating other competitors by more than 1 minute.
Bosma, who teaches the "Micromouse Design and Construction" class, was happy with Chico State's results.
"I thought it was great," he said. "We solved the maze twice without moving the mouse, which is better than any other teams."
He is already planning ways to improve the robot's speed.
"Next year, we have to go a lot faster," Bosma said. "We have to change our motor technique."
Bosma said he plans to look into different motors and wants to make the micromouse smaller.
Another Chico State robot, Juanita 5 Jr., placed second in the design portion of the competition.
Chico State has been competing in the event for about 12 years, but this is the first time in at least five years that the university's chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has organized it, president Trish Hamar said.
Chico State has held the fastest record since a student's robot made it to the center in 23 seconds in 2001.
"I think we rocked," Hamar said. "Since we kept the record, I'm pretty proud."
The micromouse robots, which usually measure less than 6 inches by 6 inches, are built and programmed by the students, said Ted Dobry, the event's announcer and the adviser to University of Hawaii competitors.
To win, robots had to navigate to the center of the maze in the fastest time. Each robot had 10 minutes to get through the maze as many times as possible.
The robots were programmed to decide for themselves what was the best way to reach the center of the maze.
The robots' creators could not influence the machines once they started without a restart penalty and an addition of 30 seconds to the robot's fastest time, Dobry said. Remington Plastic's creators, like many other groups, moved the robot back to the starting point once it got lost and started crashing into the maze walls.
"We went for a very crash and burn approach," Frey said.
Nine robots competed at the event: three from Chico State, one from UC Davis, one from San Francisco State and four from the University of Hawaii. Only five made it to the middle of the maze.
The universities that attended gave Chico State a round of applause for hosting a successful event, said the competition's regional director Ron Kane.
Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@theorion.com
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