History of UH Micromouse
In the beginning.....
1995-1996
Two very foolhardy students decided to work on
the micromouse. One of the students decided to work on the micromouse as
his Eta Kappa Nu (HKN)
pledge project, and brought in his partner as the third member. After
many, many meetings and many, many cups of coffee, the group was able to
make a maze solving algorithm, specifications for an efficient mouse, and
a prototype mouse, the Hokule'a. The prototype proved that they were on
the right track of making a mouse.
Behold, the Hokule`a.....
Hokule`a
1996-1997
With the knowledge they gained from building the
prototype, they were able to build a fully operational mouse. The mouse
competed at the Region 6 Central Area Spring Meeting Micromouse Contest,
held on Saturday, May 3, 1997 at the University of the Pacif ic at
Stockton, California. Eight mice, representing four universities, entered
the contest that year. Competing for the first time, the team from the
Unversity of Hawaii captured 1st place trophy. The name of the winning
mouse was `Iole`Auana, which t ranslates to "Wandering Mouse." It
finished the maze in 1 minute and 2 seconds.
`Iole`Auana and Hokule`a
Construction The
micromouse project is heavily interdisciplinary. Nathan Mariels (left) is
working on interfacing with the stepper motors, and Kent Kanja (right) is
desoldering a circuit board.
1997-1998
Because the success of `Iole`Auana, the next
year the micromouse program expanded a great deal. At one time, there
were 15 people working on the micromouse project. However, the new teams
were quite young, consisting of mostly freshmen and sophomore. F rom the
winning team the previous year, 3 of the 4 members returned to construct
another mouse......a better mouse. In the end, although UH almost had two
mice competing mice, only one competed in the actual competition, held on
the campus of the Univers ity of California, Davis. UH again captured
first with a time of approx. 45 seconds.