Technabob » maze

Min7 Micromouse Robot Solves Maze Under 4 Seconds, Real Mice out of a Job

Conner Flynn — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:00:34 +0000

Are you geek enough to realize that there is actually an annual Micromouse Robot Competition? It’s where a bunch of small robots face off against each other not in the ring, but in a labyrinth. The goal is to solve the maze as quickly as possible.

That means that they need to be fast and turn quickly. And I mean fast. Check out the videos to see these little guys just zip around these mazes like The Flash after a visit to Starbucks. The current king of the competition is Ng Bent Kiat, with his mouse robot called the Min7.

The Min7 is the first 4-wheeled robot Ng has created, which I suppose says a lot about his skill. It weighs 90 grams and measures just 10 x 7.5 x 2.5cm, with a straight line speed of 3.5m/s. It’s brain is a 20MHz Hitachi 2633R processor. Initially, the robot first enters the maze and do some recon, slowly mapping it out.

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Then comes the timed run where they navigate the maze as quickly as possible:

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Boy, these things sure can move!

[via Geek]

Harry Potter Maize Maze: Sending Him Off in Style

Range — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:58:24 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be fully aware that the final Harry Potter movie is coming out this week. Apparently, people are celebrating (and commiserating) this all over the world. Check out what a farmer in the UK decided to do with his corn field.

Farmer Top Pearsy decided to create a Harry Potter corn maze, which he calls a Maize Maze in York, England. It was unveiled in photos yesterday, and I have to say that it looks pretty impressive. It always amazes me when I see stuff like this. I just wonder how it was exactly designed and laid out. Maybe Google Earth helped.

Needless to say that fans everywhere will be mourning the end of the beloved movie series. To be honest, after the last book was released in 2007, I kind stop watching the movies. Maybe it’s time to watch them again.

[via Design You Trust]

Robotic MicroMouse Finishes Maze in Under 6 Seconds

Technabob — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:06:50 +0000

Wanna see a fast robot? These tiny little robotic mice are designed to make their way through a maze, with the simple goal of finding their way to the end of the maze. Apparently, racing tiny “micromouse” robots is a regular occurence in Japan, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed the sport.

You have to watch a few runs of Khiew Tzong Yong’s half-sized micromouse to see just how fast it’s able to find its way to the end of the maze. It takes it a few tries, but eventually, the speedy mechanical rodent manages to make it from start to finish in just 5.513 seconds.

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While I’m not sure if that’s any sort of world record, it’s still mighty impressive for a weensy autonomous robo-mouse. In case you’re interested in running your own micromouse in the next race, here are the official rules.

[via Robots-Dreams]

Superplexus Vortex Puzzle Makes My Head Spin

Lambert Varias — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:06:47 +0000

As its name implies, the Superplexus Vortex is a super-sized version of the Perplexus, a plastic spherical maze. The Superplexus Vortex not only has a catchy name, the mere sight of it is probably enough to make a drunk man vomit. In marketing speak, the gigantic maze is “a complex network of chicanes, multi-planar hairpin turns, spirals, and staircases – even a vortex.”

At least the path has arrows. As far as I know (and that’s not a lot, believe me) each Superplexus Vortex was handmade by a man named Michael McGinnis (he’s the smiling bearded dude shown below).

The acrylic sphere containing the maze measures 36″ in diameter and can be tilted in any direction, and you’ll definitely do a lot of tilting (and swearing) as you try to roll the steel ball from the start to the end of the maze.

Here are some more daunting facts about the Superplexus Vortex: “The entire track laid out on a straight line is 31′ longer than a football field. In addition to the track, the ball must travel on a 1/16″ diameter stainless steel wire pathway at eight points along the journey… successful completion requires a minimum of 425 turns (plane changes) of the sphere–without letting the marble fall off the track.” In other words, you’ll never beat this puzzle.

But perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Superplexus Vortex is its price – Hammacher Schlemmer is selling it for $30,000 (USD). As a consolation, the store does claim that you can adjust the difficulty for your own Superplexus Vortex. Then again, what good is a $30,000 maze if you can solve it in a minute?

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[pics via Michael's wife aka thesingingbird's photostream]

Soul: Indie Horror Puzzler for Xbox 360

Lambert Varias — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:27:37 +0000

Made by Kydos Studio, Soul is an Xbox Live Indie game with a simple premise: guide a dead man’s soul to heaven. Actually it’s not that simple, not with things like this blocking your way:

Yeah, that helpless-looking blue thing is the soul. As if that disturbing screenshot isn’t enough, Soul‘s trailer is one of the creepiest that I’ve ever seen:

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Now I really want to buy a new Xbox 360. Starving to death is scarier though, so I’ll have to wait and be content with watching gameplay videos. Dammit. Check out the game’s official website for more nighmarish screenshots. The game will be available “soon” for 80 Microsoft Points ($1 USD). Lucky Xbox 360 owners can download the demo now at the Xbox Marketplace.

[via Joystiq]

Spewer: This Game Will Make You Want to Puke

Technabob — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:40:54 +0000

Here’s a fun concept for a video game… you’re stuck in a maze and the only way out is to puke all over the place. That’s the basic concept behind Spewer.

In this indie physics-based game from Eli Piilonen and Edmund McMillan, you play a test subject caught in a variety of devious puzzles, and your only method of escape is to barf your guts out so you can float your way out of the maze.

As you work your way through the game’s 60 levels, the challenges keep getting tougher and tougher. Luckily, you continue to evolve over time, and get bigger, badder and better regurgitation capabilities as you progress – and if you’re persistent, you might learn why you’ve been turned into a vomiting guinea pig.

So if you’ve got the stomach for it, head on over to Newgrounds and check out Spewer now.

[via The Independent Gaming Source]