There's a mouse in the maze: UCSD IEEE organizes robotic mouse competition

First, there was Mickey Mouse. Then came Mighty Mouse. Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, comes micromouse, the little robot that could. Actually, a total of 13 micromice visited the UC San Diego campus last month, for a competition pitting teams from eight universities. It was the first Southern California competition hosted by UCSD IEEE at the Jacobs School of Engineering, but Kansas State University joined in the fun too. Fittingly, UCSD teams took first and second place in the competition. UCLA came in third.

A micromouse barrels through the maze at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

The robots don't look like rodents, but their programming is geared toward solving a maze and finding its center-without getting a piece of cheese as a reward. The competition is a great learning experience and allows students to learn as much as a during a single undergraduate course, said Minji Kim, a graduating senior and president of UCSD's chapter of IEEE for 2010-11. IEEE was able to secure a grant from Qualcomm to organize the competition.

''I think a project gives students valuable experience because they have to learn everything from scratch,'' said Kim, an electrical engineering and math double major.

The mice are completely autonomous and the goal is to get to the center of the maze as fast as possible. They typically use a microcontroller and infrared sensors reflecting off the walls to make their way through the maze.

Some also use a wireless interface to transmit debugging data back to their team's laptop. Most teams build the robots with off-the-shelf components. But some prefer to put together a custom circuit board, chassis and other parts. Many of the components students work on will be part of their future professional lives as engineers, said Kim.

Teams also use different strategies to make their way through the maze, custom-built here at the  Jacobs School of Engineering in 2009 and upgraded in summer 2010.