The history of the Mouse
The Micromouse event started at Techfest 6 years ago, and has since then drawn a huge amount of awe and excitement - becoming the most eagerly awaited event of next year (as I like to call it). But let us go down memory lane to find out the humble beginnings of the mouse...
The first winner from insti was a PG named Vinay Savla, the mouse was named "Drunken Mouse". I recently had the opportunity to see his mouse, which was at Siraj's room. It was huge!! It had a castor, a very heavy metallic body, a large battery, and a prehistoric PCB. They used to use 89C52 8051 based microcontroller which did not have ADC pins. Other drawbacks include the absence of the switching-mode voltage regulator. They used to use thing which look like Giant relays! The competition used to be so demanding then that mice used to win even if they can only move straight and take a turn.
That year, Ashish Bhat was just a freshie (sorry Ashish if you are reading this). According to Siraj, Vinay acknowledged that Bhat's mouse was superior, but lost out only because his batteries had drained out and TF didn't allow him to charge them since the mice had to be submitted before the event. And then, rose a huge inflow of developments in the mouse. There came ADC, better stepper motor controllers, faster uCs and everything... Upto a point where Bhat had the fastest mouse in India (pathfinder)!!
Then as I like to say: enter the iGEEKs : A huge team of dedicated Tech enthusiasts consisting of Siraj (Siraj), Simit (Cmux), Kartik (mohta), Vishal (Lamba Patla aadmi), Shriharsh (Anti), Sangram (Sango) and 5 others. These guys took tech in the insti to the level which it is right now. The flame had been lit by Bhat, but these guys took it further: They brought the microcontroller to the realm of the Freshie.
They brought in "Printed circuit Boards" and laser cut chassis in the mouse, thus taking the level one step higher. They named their mouse Magellan. Magellan IV had DC motors and clocked 6 seconds at TF professionals, to the fastest in India: only to beat Magellan III which in turn broke Magellan IIs record.
But in the mean time, there was another small group of people : A new class of criminal: the penTium5 consisting of Vishnu, "the" Malpani, Pratik, Smit and (the great) Mehul rising up through the ranks of the mouse. They came up with Nibbles and Bytes: perhaps the only team after iGeek to have run two mice in micromouse at TF.
After these, it remains a mystery as to who shall continue with the mouse. There are many more mice in the insti: I can count 12 at present. It is heartening to see such enthu in people even for an event famed to be the pinnacle of robotics and control...
signing off:
Ramu
The first winner from insti was a PG named Vinay Savla, the mouse was named "Drunken Mouse". I recently had the opportunity to see his mouse, which was at Siraj's room. It was huge!! It had a castor, a very heavy metallic body, a large battery, and a prehistoric PCB. They used to use 89C52 8051 based microcontroller which did not have ADC pins. Other drawbacks include the absence of the switching-mode voltage regulator. They used to use thing which look like Giant relays! The competition used to be so demanding then that mice used to win even if they can only move straight and take a turn.
That year, Ashish Bhat was just a freshie (sorry Ashish if you are reading this). According to Siraj, Vinay acknowledged that Bhat's mouse was superior, but lost out only because his batteries had drained out and TF didn't allow him to charge them since the mice had to be submitted before the event. And then, rose a huge inflow of developments in the mouse. There came ADC, better stepper motor controllers, faster uCs and everything... Upto a point where Bhat had the fastest mouse in India (pathfinder)!!
Then as I like to say: enter the iGEEKs : A huge team of dedicated Tech enthusiasts consisting of Siraj (Siraj), Simit (Cmux), Kartik (mohta), Vishal (Lamba Patla aadmi), Shriharsh (Anti), Sangram (Sango) and 5 others. These guys took tech in the insti to the level which it is right now. The flame had been lit by Bhat, but these guys took it further: They brought the microcontroller to the realm of the Freshie.
They brought in "Printed circuit Boards" and laser cut chassis in the mouse, thus taking the level one step higher. They named their mouse Magellan. Magellan IV had DC motors and clocked 6 seconds at TF professionals, to the fastest in India: only to beat Magellan III which in turn broke Magellan IIs record.
But in the mean time, there was another small group of people : A new class of criminal: the penTium5 consisting of Vishnu, "the" Malpani, Pratik, Smit and (the great) Mehul rising up through the ranks of the mouse. They came up with Nibbles and Bytes: perhaps the only team after iGeek to have run two mice in micromouse at TF.
After these, it remains a mystery as to who shall continue with the mouse. There are many more mice in the insti: I can count 12 at present. It is heartening to see such enthu in people even for an event famed to be the pinnacle of robotics and control...
signing off:
Ramu
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