Amazeobot : The construction of a maze mapping robot

Abstract: For the purpose of exploring how a computer can navigate through a maze, this project examines how a robot’s surroundings can be interpreted, mapped and navigated through, by applying common maze solving algorithms. The execution of the project involves infrared sensors used to interpret a controlled environment, consisting of a twodimensional board with paths. Movement and navigation decisions will be made possible by two DCmotorized wheels mounted on a platform, two simple computers and two maze solving algorithms. The interpretation of the maze is done with infrared sensors by applying commonly used line following techniques, with some adjustments to care for the projects specific application. A single board computer with support for analog input is used for the line following and interpretation of crossroads. In addition with having another single board computer, with support for high level programming languages, a suitable data structure can be built for the purpose of the mapping. From this decisions regarding navigation will be made. The algorithm for mapping the maze and the decision making is implemented using Python 2. An experiment is performed to investigate the time consumption regarding two different algorithms, Wall follower and Trémaux. The implemented theories are discussed and the used algorithms are described thoroughly in this report. From the results, it can be understood that the Trémaux algorithm showed different results every test run, as it should. But the conclusion comes from the mean value of the time consumption. It shows that Trémaux was more effective than the Wall follower algorithm, with varying time differences of up to a couple of minutes.