Two teams from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University captured first and second place with two different search/speed run strategies in the APEC Micromouse Contest 2018, and also garnered the “Best Student” award, which is the best result ever for a mainland China team in this top level international micromouse contest.
APEC Micromouse Contest 2018
Micromouse is a kind of intelligent micro-robot composed of an embedded microcontroller, photoelectric sensor, kinematic unit (including a DC motor and an inertial measurement unit), and electric drive devices. A micromouse enters automatically into a maze, chooses the shortest path and reaches the goal with an intelligent control algorithm. The Micromouse Contest colligates many subjects such as mechanics, electronics, optics, automatic control, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, etc., and has a history of over 40 years. The contest applies the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards, and gains great popularity in places such as the US, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
The APEC Micromouse Contest is the most famous contest in the area, which represents the highest level of such events. The contest attracts skilled teams from the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, etc. Participants are college students and experienced research specialists, which adds to the enjoyment and challenge of the event.
Students and staff from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering have made great efforts in recent years to reach a leading position among Chinese universities. They won the championship of the 2017 Qicheng Cup College Student Miccromouse Contest of Tianjin, and thus was graciously invited by the APEC Micromouse Contest 2018 organizing committee. To meet the challenge and catch up to world-class levels, our students and staff gave up their winter vacation to prepare for the event. They improved their techniques in both hardware and software and became qualified to compete with other top players all over the world.
TJU teams awarded by APEC Micromouse Contest organizing committee
The APEC Micromouse Contest 2018 was held in San Antonio, Texas, USA on March 5th, 2018. The School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University took part in the event on behalf of mainland China. They sent two micromouses: Lightening McQueen (team member: Zhao Yao, Liang jiashuo, Li Xiangkun; advisor: Liu Yingshu) and Long- Turbo 2.0 (team member: Zhang Shuai, Li Yadong, Kang Zhangqi; advisor: Wang Chao). They captured the top two places with two different search/speed run strategies, gained the “Best Studentaward, and stood out among teams from the US, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, which became the highlight of the event.
The award-winning micromouses and the trophy
The contest shows the strong ability of our students in academic competitions as well as innovation. The result owes to the hard work of the staff, and also the great support of Tianjin University. Our students bolstered their knowledge and confidence through the event and won great honor for Tianjin University in this international forum.
By: Meng Xianjun from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
