APEC 2001

March 4-8, 2001
The Disneyland Hotel
Anaheim, California

• Technical Sessions
• Professional Education Seminars
• Exhibitors
• Rap Sessions
• MicroMouse Contest Results
• Other Activities
• Press Release - Program Committee Meeting
• Press Release - Post Conference Story
• Conference Committee & Management
• Photos

MicroMouse Contest Results

The fifteenth annual APEC Micromouse Contest was held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California on March 5, 2001. A total of 11 mice were on hand, including 3 foreign teams. L.N.G. from Korea came in first with the best score and the fastest run.

Min 2 from Singapore was awarded the second prize and Ning 2 by the same designer received the third prize. The Best Student Prize also went to L.N.G. from Korea. All the contestants are listed in the table below.

Cash prizes were awarded again this year. L.N.G. received US$150 for first place and US$150 for the best student entry.

The contest was held on Monday night after the exposition so that everyone at the conference could attend. To handle the audience of over 150 people, an aerial view of the maze was projected on a large screen behind the judge’s table.

Gerardo Molina prepared the maze design once again. APEC has developed a reputation for very difficult maze designs. This year’s design had three paths to the center: 78, 80, and 82 squares long respectively. Most mice used the shortest path. It had many open squares with no walls on any side. The table below contains a list of the scores for each mouse that was able to solve the maze. The score is based on 1/30 of the time used to search the maze prior to the start of each run (maze time), and the time of that run (run time). If the mouse has not crashed or been restarted prior to the start of a run, a bonus of 3 seconds is subtracted from the score. (For a complete set of APEC MicroMouse Contest Rules, click here.)

L.N.G. was the winner of the 20th All Japan Micromouse Contest held in Tokyo last November. Mr. Oh Kil-young is a student at Hoseo University in Korea.

Ning 2 was inspired by the Korean mice that raced at the 18th All Japan Micromouse Contest. It has two stepper motors, six infrared sensors and weighs about 800g. It came in 2nd at APEC 2000 and tied for 3rd place in the 20th All Japan Final.

Min2 uses DC motors and came in 2nd at the 21st All Japan Final held in November 2000. It was designed by Mr. Ng Beng Kiat, a lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore.

MITEE Mouse 8C came in 3rd at the 21st All Japan Final in November 2000 behind L.N.G. and Min2. It uses DC motors with NiCd batteries and weighs 200 grams. Mr. Otten and his partner Tony Caloggero are staff members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

VI-Mouse is the first MicroMouse to represent Vicor Corporation in an APEC Micromouse competition. VI-Mouse uses two bipolar stepper motors as “limbs” to navigate in the maze. Twelve infrared sensors are used to capture the maze information and to ensure reliable navigation. The NEC 78K310A single chip 8-bit microcontroller is the "brain" that collects wall information and makes movement decision to explore the maze. VI-Mouse is powered by 18 NiCd rechargeable cells. Mr. Gim Soon Wan participated in the 1999 APEC MicroMouse competition when he was a student at Merrimack College. He has been working as a design engineer at Vicor Corporation for the last 2.5 years.

Hhak and Kin 2 are designed by students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. Hhak uses stepper motors and Kin2 uses DC Motors. Ngee Ann has a program to teach mechatronics to its students through MicroMouse design and construction.

MicroMouse I has a wheel-chair configuration driven by two stepper motors. Sixteen infrared sensors detect the tops of the walls. An 80188 processor running at 12 MHz with 32K of RAM and 32K of EPROM provides the intelligence. It can accelerate at 1 m/sec² with a maximum velocity of 1m/sec. MicroMouse II has a tricycle configuration driven by two DC motors. A servo controls the direction of the front wheel for steering. This wheel also measures the distance traveled. Forty-eight infrared sensors are used to detect the top of the walls. A 20 MHz version of the 80188 with 64K of RAM and 64K of EPROM together with a 10 MHz version of the 6502 ("Apple on a chip") constitute the intelligence. It can accelerate at 3m/sec² and has a maximum velocity of 3 m/sec. The most impressive feature of this mouse is the fact that it plans its route like a race car driver, heading for the outside of the lane before and after every turn. Louis last competed in an APEC contest in 1995 in Dallas, Texas.

The mouse named "Code Rage" was designed by students at California State University at Long Beach. They began working on its design last June, which gave them ample time to experiment with various components and configurations. Code Rage uses an HC11 microprocessor and stepper motors.

The main decision algorithm is based on Tak Auyeung's C* (C-Star) algorithm, which they are in the process of modifying and optimizing. The program is written in C and runs about 1K lines. Code Rage makes arced turns and will eventually be able to run "S" curves on a diagonal for increased speed. Sensors look downward, except for a sensor in front for braking. Total cost of the mouse was under $500.

Zeetah IV is a 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering mouse. It has DC motors for drive and steering and is powered by 7 NiMH cells. Weighing in at 450 grams, it measures 3.1 inches x 5.1 inches x 2.5 inches. Intelligence comes from a Motorola 68336 processor clocked at 22 MHz with 256k bytes of RAM and ROM. It uses 14 side wall sensors. Mr. Singh currently works for Microsoft.

APEC 2001 MicroMouse Maze Design
Best Score = 13.53 seconds; Fastest Run = 10.82 seconds