Robot Micromouse

Abstract

The micromouse robot is an autonomous robot designed to navigate mazes and find the shortest path to the destination point. This study aims to design a micromouse robot software system using a flood fill algorithm that is able to move without touching walls and determine the direction and angle of rotation when encountering a dead end. The system uses an Arduino Nano as a microcontroller, an infrared sensor for wall detection, a DC motor with a rotary encoder, and a 2- channel motor driver with robot dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm. The software implementation uses a Breadth-First Search (BFS)-based flood fill algorithm for optimal path mapping with a backtracking mechanism to handle dead end conditions, a state machine with 6 states to regulate the execution flow, Proportional-Derivative (PD) control with parameters Kp = 2.0 and Kd = 0.05 for movement stability, and trapezoidal velocity profiling for smooth movement. The backtracking mechanism allows the robot to return to the previous cell when encountering a dead end and update the value to find an alternative route to the destination. Test results showed the robot was able to complete a 4x4 maze in an average of 45 seconds with a heading deviation of less than 2 degrees when moving straight and a rotation accuracy of ±2 degrees. The PD control system provided a responsiveness of 32 ms, and velocity profiling reduced wheel slippage by up to 90% and increased energy efficiency by 25%. This research contributes to the development of mobile robot technology and robotics learning media.