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Mighty Mouse

From out of the dark corners they crawl. Some light and sleek, others large and menacing. There are those you can hardly hear at all, whereas others roar and growl. It's micromouse time again, and these descriptions relate to the very fast intelligent robots, not their designers. The New Zealand Annual Micromouse Contest is now run as a permanent fixture during the Electronics New Zealand Conference seminars, hosted this year by the Defence Scientific Establishment in Devonport, Auckland.

This year, however, our best electronics designers faced a new challenge -- the Japanese. For the first time ever, a team of five top Japanese students entered their designs in our national contest. And no wonder; with the success of Gary Brightwell's Penfold in the Australian national competition last year, New Zealand is gaining an international reputation in the field of autonomous robots, or mechatronics, as the gurus refer to it. The University of Waikato team attained first and third places in this international event, and were invited to compete in competitions in the US and Hong Kong.

So this year the race was on to find who would represent us for the next twelve months, with the added challenge of competing against the Japanese contingent.

New Zealand got off to a bad start with a promising team from Otago withdrawing, and Gary deciding not to defend his title. The Japanese arrived with a formidable array of equipment and some extremely interesting designs, but the Kiwis were not deterred! Our maze is not constructed to the absolute precision that the Japanese have become used to, and one bump finished off one of their contenders. Poor maze-solving logic dealt to another, and yet another could not keep going straight.

Along came Robin Hartley (runner-up last year), who became the first New Zealander to have a mouse complete a competition maze without incurring any penalties. His first entrant, Rodan II, reliably solved the maze, and completed several speed runs at a very creditable pace. The remaining Japanese contestants also solved the maze in comparable times.

But rumours started floating around the audience that Robin had a secret weapon, not yet unveiled. It had not been seen during the testing stage, but was supposed to be something extraordinary. Finally, when all other competitors had completed their runs, Rodan III was released. The crowd gasped -- what was this awesome-looking beast? It could best be described as a cross between Terminator 2 and something from the annals of Doctor Who. It started with a huge roar (actually a high speed motor to create suction under the mouse to significantly increase wheel traction), and then proceeded along the maze like a vacuum cleaner gone mad.

So why had it been hidden for so long -- why had we not seen it tested? The answer was simple: the power drain was so intense that it only had about five minute's run time in the batteries. Indeed it was a fast beast, not as reliable as its predecessor but proof conclusive that Kiwi designers are in a league of their own.

The Micromouse Association shield was deservedly presented to Robin, as well as the Philips New Zealand (the competiton's major sponsor) prize of a trip to Australia to compete in the Oz Mouse competition. Additionally, Robin receives a sponsorship to compete in the APEC 96 US contest. His achievements are even more remarkable given that he is a solo entrant without the benefit of university backing. It looks like he'll have stiff competition next year, with five New Zealand universities likely to challenge for the title.

Dale Carnegie is director of Waikato University's Microelectronics Group.