Maze robot for 2025 NRC

Lena Wright, Mandi Petonic, Janna Winningham and Molly Moidell

Description of Robots

Lena, Mandi, Janna and Molly wanted to work together on the Robot Maze contest for 2025. Usually our GEAR members pair up for this contest. The GEAR advisor suggested the team consider building two robots for the contest as a research project. One robot would contain ultrasound sensors, the same as GEAR has used in the past. The second robot should utilize IR sensors. The team split up in pairs to build the two robots. Then they programmed both robots to run the maze. Since they were registered as one team for the NRC, they needed to pick one robot for their entry. They selected the robot with IR sensors.

The team developed two programs for the IR sensor robot, one running at half speed and one at full speed. The robot had good success in finishing the maze at both speeds when testing in the GEAR laboratory. Upon arrival at the NRC, it was decided to test the robot at 3/4 speed. During the first two runs at the contest the robot did not perform very well. Having faith in their robot, they stuck with the 3/4 speed for their final run and it completed the maze!

Both robots utilized an ActivityBot 360 WX board from Parallax, which contains the microprocessor and memory for program storage. The robots were programmed in C language. The robot motors are continuous rotation servos with encoders from Parallax. The robot bodies were modeled in Onshape and 3D printed. The ultrasound sensor (Ping) was from Parallax. The IR sensors were built from components (see our page on the micromouse robot for details of these custom sensors)