decimus

Decimus 2 takes shape

Posted Wed, 28/10/2009 - 04:29 by peteh

Decimus has been running reasonably well and each competition sees the plucky little micromouse improving in some way or another. It is clear though that it is not going to be fast enough to compete in South East Asia with any great chance of success. There are at least two faults on it. One is a damaged motor and another, I think, is a dry-joint somewhere on the PCB. Every so often, it will just do something unexpected like turn through a completely wrong angle. When I made Decimus, I ordered extra boards. This week the new motors came so, with only a short time to the all-Japan contest, I am trying to put another mouse together….

UK Micromouse 2009 videos

Posted Sun, 12/07/2009 - 17:41 by peteh

jpgs-078Video from the UK Micromouse 2009 competition is now available on YouTube. These cover the maze solver and non-contact wall follower classes.

UK Micromouse 2009 personal photos

Posted Thu, 09/07/2009 - 01:17 by peteh

jpgs-112Here is the first set of photos from the 2009 UK micromouse competition held in Birmingham on June 27th. These photos are taken by me and there are not very many because I was pretty busy.

Decimus speed feed forward

Posted Fri, 04/04/2008 - 19:39 by peteh

As set up for the last post, my micromouse Decimus is performing reasonably well on the ground. So far. The data plots show some features that are a little bit curious. However, my concerns over the apparent error in the endpoint were a little misleading. The recorded error is derived from the integral of the set speed and the total count from the wheel encoders. Thus, it does not represent an actual error on the ground...

Encoder/Motor trouble

Posted Wed, 26/03/2008 - 03:30 by peteh

This micromouse thing is a bit tricky. I have not been happy with the accuracy of the results I have been getting with Decimus. Occasionally, a move is significantly shorter, or longer than intended. Looking at the code does not help - either the code is fine or I just follow the same thought process leading to the same errors every time I look. There is, however, something odd about the encoders.