How to Make a Maze for Your Micromouse

I will be describing very briefly how to make your own micromouse maze. If you have any questions please ask them and I'll try to answer them.

1. Plywood/MDF sheet
2. A white material similar to Forex (expanded PVC board) that is hard and rigid, but relatively easy to cut. 1.5mm and 3mm thick sheets
3. Superglue to stick the forex boards together
4. Black paint for painting the board
5. Red paint in small quantities for painting the top of the walls.
6. Measuring Tape
7. Drill Press or if you don't have it, a hand drill
8. Some tool to make the round holes made by the drill, square by filing or widening or similar action.
9. brush for the paints

Planning

Since this will not be a full size maze, remember that the effort required to add more rows and columns to the maze increases very fast. It will also get more and more expensive. Make all expense and effort related calculations early on before you even begin. If you don't have an idea of how many rows x columns you want in your maze, stop now and calculate it.

Preparation

I have decided to go with a 5 x 3 maze as it will suit my needs - calibration, testing and a reasonably large maze with multiple possible paths. Also there was a plywood board that was lying around that fit the needs. To be competition ready, I will need to run the mouse on a proper 15 x 15 maze to find any bugs that are brought on by larger distances to travel. But for now, this will suffice. For a 3 x 5 maze, I will need to drill (3+1) * (5+1) holes, ie. 24 holes with accuracy onto the plywood.

I drilled the holes using a drill press I had access to in a college. The holes have to be vertical and square. Using a drill press, I didn't have to worry about the vertical part - if you don't have access to a drill press, use a jig or a hand drill

Another problem here is that we need a square holes. As shown in the design of the pillar, the pillar's base fits into the square holes drilled on the base of the maze. I used a square tool with a handle to widen the round holes into square holes. You *could* try using a square file. Not sure how well it will work. Use whatever is appropriate.

You can make the pillars using two techniques.

1. Forex board Pillars

Make a sandwich of 1.5mm and 3mm sheets in a careful way as to make a 4 way post that can accomodate the walls. Refer to the measurements in the diagram. Each gap for the wall is 3mm wide and 3mm deep allowing walls to be plugged in from all 4 sides.

2. 3D printing

I've attached a untested 3MF file of the post with the correct dimensions. I haven't tried printing it as I went the other route. Feel free to test it and leave your feedback in the comments.

The walls are made by sandwiching three 3mm sheets with tongues sticking out in the middle from both sides that will go into the posts. Check the diagrams for references and dimensions.

Link to the official rules/diagrams also available here

https://www.ntf.or.jp/mouse/rule/kitei_classic-EN.html

Once you have built the posts and wall, insert the posts into the drilled square holes first.

Then arrange the walls in a maze of your choice. The goal cell should have 3 sides covered in walls.

The start cell is also like that.There should only be one goal cell and one start cell.

References:-

https://www.ntf.or.jp/mouse/rule/kitei_classic-EN.html

https://bulebots.readthedocs.io/en/latest/micromou...

http://www.micromouseonline.com/micromouse-book/mazes-and-maze-solving/construction/