The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth
Welcome to Micromouse, the fastest maze-solving competition on Earth. Join Onshape’s community of over 3 million CAD users by creating a free account here: https://Onshape.pro/Veritasium.
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A huge thank you to Peter Harrison for all of his help introducing us to the world of Micromouse – check out https://ukmars.org & https://micromouseonline.com.
Thank you to David Otten, APEC, and the All-Japan Micromouse Competition for having us.
Thank you to Juing-Hei (https://www.youtube.com/@suhu9379) & Derek Hall (https://www.youtube.com/@MicroMouse) for usage of their micromouse videos.
Thank you to John McBride, Yusaku Kanagawa, and Katie Barnshaw for their help with Japanese translations.
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References:
Claude Shannon Demonstrates Machine Learning, AT&T Tech Channel Archive – https://ve42.co/ClaudeShannon
Mighty mouse, MIT News Magazine – https://ve42.co/MightyMouse
History, Micromouse Online Blog – https://ve42.co/MMHistory
Christiansen, D. (1977). Spectral lines: Announcing the Amazing Micro-Mouse Maze Contest. IEEE Spectrum, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 27-27 – https://ve42.co/Christiansen1977
Allan, R. (1979). Microprocessors: The amazing micromice: See how they won: Probing the innards of the smartest and fastest entries in the Amazing Micro-Mouse Maze Contest. IEEE Spectrum, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 62-65, – https://ve42.co/Allan1979
1977-79 – “MOONLIGHT SPECIAL” Battelle Inst. (American), CyberNetic Zoo – https://ve42.co/MoonlightSpecial
Christiansen, D. (2014). The Amazing MicroMouse Roars On. Spectral Lines – https://ve42.co/Christiansen2014
1986 – MicroMouse history, competition & how it got started in the USA, via YouTube – https://ve42.co/MMArchiveYT
The first World Micromouse Contest in Tsubuka, Japan, August 1985 [1/2] by TKsTclip via YouTube – https://ve42.co/MMTsukubaYT
IEEE. (2018). Micromouse Competition Rules – https://ve42.co/IEEERules
Tondra, D. (2004). The Inception of Chedda: A detailed design and analysis of micromouse. University of Nevada – https://ve42.co/Tondra2004
Braunl, T. (1999). Research relevance of mobile robot competitions. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 32-37 – https://ve42.co/Braunl1999
All Japan Micromouse 2017 by Peter Harrison, Micromouse Online – https://ve42.co/RedComet
Winning record of the national competition micromouse (half size) competition. mm3sakusya @ wiki (Google translated from Japanese) – https://ve42.co/JapanFinishTimes
The Fosbury Flop—A Game-Changing Technique, Smithsonian Magazine – https://ve42.co/FosburyFlop
Gold medal winning heights in the Men’s and Women’s high jump at the Summer Olympics from 1896 to 2020, Statistica – https://ve42.co/HighJump
Zhang, H., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., & Soon, P. L. (2016). Design and realization of two-wheel micro-mouse diagonal dashing. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 31(4), 2299-2306. – https://ve42.co/Zhang2016
Micromouse Turn List, Keri’s Lab – https://ve42.co/MMTurns
Green Ye via YouTube – https://ve42.co/Greenye
Classic Micromouse, Excel 9a. Demonstrate fan suction, by TzongYong Khiew via YouTube – https://ve42.co/MMFanYT
Vacuum Micromouse by Eliot, HACKADAY – https://ve42.co/MMVacuum
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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
Emil Abu Milad, Tj Steyn, meg noah, Bernard McGee, KeyWestr, Amadeo Bee, TTST, Balkrishna Heroor, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Anton Ragin, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Juan Benet, Ubiquity Ventures, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, Sam Lutfi.
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Written by Tom Lum and Emily Zhang
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Animated by Ivy Tello
Coordinated by Emily Zhang
Filmed by Yusaku Kanagawa, Emily Zhang, Derek Muller, and Raquel Nuno
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound
Thumbnail by Ren Hurley and Ignat Berbeci
References by Katie Barnshaw
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang
Those turns are unreal, it looks like the mouse is simply teleporting across across certain parts of the maze
That one micro mouse surely do that once it hits 88mph.
Don’t read my name!.
@Dont_Read_My_User_Photo ok
Pardon the pun, but it is a-mazing how advanced these tiny robots have become, both in speed and intelligence. 😮
@Dont_Read_My_User_Photo TL;DR
Sure the mice are impressive, but the animations at 8:40 are surprisingly sophisticated! It made understanding these concepts so much easier. Hats off to the team behind them.
Ikr its soo cool… Alsoo hello there blender guru you taught me blender thanks for that XD
Yoo
Ay the doughnut man
AGREED
Hello donut man
It’d be interesting to add some curved sections to the maze and see how that affects the routing algorithms. It looks like the mice can already handle them mechanically.
CURVES SECTIONS?!?
Something tells me that could either make or break the algorithms.
Think about the flash fill method… they use a grid to map the maze. Now how would that grid work with a curved section?!?
@00linered I guess you could either subdivide the grid further, or maybe work with floats?
@00linered wouldn’t that be the new challenge?
Or bridges
@Jayathran P SExactly, transform the sport! Curved sections would be so much fun to watch.
Once you understand what goes into mouse navigation, this goes from appearing as odd nerd behavior to something genuinely impressive.
Yupp I think that’s most things. That’s why I love learning! Appreciate life!
well said. youre hired
and when they put machine guns on them and send them into tunnels after humans…
Same with any sufficiently advanced “odd nerd behaviour” tbh
Be that as it may, those are some shockingly weak mazes with **many** paths to success. Lets get some AI generated mazes in there where excessive diagonals are not included…
Absolutely fascinating. It’s a real shame this stuff isn’t aired on major outlets.
I would spectate this!
They should have an ESPN alternative channel, with all these more special competitions. This, wife carrying, speed lumber jacking, eating competitions, pumpkin throwing, dodgeball.
@DWelting So a permanent ESPN Ocho?
YouTube is a major outlet
@DWelting can you include tag in there or is it already being broadcasted well enough
I would love to see a layered maze with multiple floors and ramps, like a parking hall. Bottom is the start and top is the goal
And they need to make the problem more complicated again – like adding in the free-standing walls. How about some curved walls, or pegboard holes in the floor, or rough surfaces, or transparent walls, or curtained-off short-cuts?
Or add “cats” that block parts of the maze as they follow predefined paths. So the mouse has to probe the movement of the cats as well as the walls to find the best path.
Doors/gates
Opening and closing gates like in fall guys
Add a lava moat filled with fire alligators
It’d be cool to see a maze with different elevations throughout.
yeah, if people think it’s stagnating, upgrade the maze with elevations and multiple levels, that’d cause more innovation to happen!!
or a 3d object which could have intersting shortcuts depending how the maze wraps around
That’s exactly what I thought!!!
And opposite burms and different textures and bumpy sections
@Macallan rally mouse
I love how the video is building up the tension of the Japan competition of Utsunomiya trying to beat first place.
It’s just such a treat to watch
also Red Comet being named after a famous anime character known for being unusually fast.
This videos was absolutely stunning. You took a sport nobody knew about and turned it into an amazing video. I also wouldn’t of understood a thing without those visuals. Hats off to the team.
I did this as part of my electronics university course and it was a lot of fun! Didn’t end up with anything groundbreaking, but it’s great to go through every stage of design and prototyping and create something that actually solves a practical problem, even if it’s a small one.