The ‘big cheeses’ in the world of mini robots, will be racing to Birmingham’s Millennium Point, on Saturday 28th June, to compete for the UK Micromouse 2008 Cheese Trophy. The event will also feature mini-sumo, drag-racing and biped ‘walking robot’ challenges.
Organised by Birmingham City University’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC), the event aims to inspire more young people to consider careers in software and electronics. These sectors continue to experience skills shortages, with the UK Government’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills recently reporting that although the supply of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths graduates has increased, it hasn’t increased fast enough to meet employer demand.
Event organiser, Dr Tony Wilcox explains: “Whilst electronic and software systems power many of the consumer products prized by young people, the underlying technology isn’t accessible and is taken for granted. Mini-robots, as featured at UK Micromouse, are a great way to get ‘hands-on’ and explore these technologies, which is the most effective way to spark new interest in these areas.”
Micromouse championships have been held annually in the UK for nearly 30 years, with similar events also taking place in the USA and across East Asia. The top ‘maze-solver’ challenge sees autonomous mini-robot ‘mice’, racing unaided to the centre of a specially constructed maze. Challengers utilise sensors, motors and software to enable their robots to negotiate the maze, map its surroundings and work out the optimum route to the centre over a series of timed runs.
UK Micromouse features a wide range of categories for senior and junior competitors, as well as competitions for school teams. Robot competitors range from simple starter robots, capable of sensing and following a route marked with a line, to the highly-sophisticated maze-solving robot mice. Other events include the drag race, which is a fun challenge to test the speed and acceleration of the robots and a robotic mini-sumo challenge, where contenders must first find their opponent, before pushing them out of the ring.
TIC’s Centre Manger for Software and Electronics, Parmjit Chima says “We’re looking forward to a fun and extremely competitive day. Teams from Singapore and India have pre-registered, so we’re expecting some international competition to our annual battle-of-the-bots!”
UK Micromouse 2008 is free to attend and open to the public from 10am. Further details about the event and building mini-robots can be found at www.tic.ac.uk/micromouse
