Mice are required to follow a track laid out in 50 mm wide white tape on a black background. To complete this course however mice will need to be capable of turning left and right to follow a more complex circuit. The mouse that completes a lap in the shortest time will be the winner.

Prizes will be given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Formula 2 Mice are eligible for the General Prizes.

2.1. All the general rules apply

2.2. The mouse must follow the tape at all times, only clockwise laps are permissible in order to avoid bias in favour of one direction.

2.3. Mice must not cut corners or deviate far from the course on corners. The judges may put obstacles such as cotton reels with their inside edges no less than 13 centimetres from the edge of the line (inside and outside the course) at points that they choose. If a mouse moves one of the obstacles, that lap cannot be used for scoring.

2.4. Each mouse will be limited to either 4 laps or a total of 5 minutes to record its fastest lap

2.5. Mice may be removed from the track for adjustment within their 5 minutes of track time

2.6. The circuit will not be revealed until the start of the event.

The circuit will be laid out on the standard Micromouse 180 mm square cell layout. For this event a circuit using an array of 15 x 5 cells will be used. The track will be laid as flat as possible but mice should be able to cope with a step of up to 3 mm across the track where boards are joined.

The path to be followed will be made up of 50 mm wide adhesive white tape (standard masking tape will suffice but up to 3 layers may be required and mice must be able to cope with this thickness of tape)

The tape will be laid out as a continuous loop with no tape overlap at the corners so that the tape is of uniform thickness throughout.

Inward facing 50 mm tape strips at least one cell long will be laid at 90 degrees to the circuit path at each unit cell boundary. These are distance markings and may be used by 'intelligent' mice to determine their position

The tape will be laid out to within + or - 2 mm tolerance on the 180 mm unit square grid.

The start / finish line sensor will be placed at the mid-point of one of the long edges of the circuit.

The two layouts shown below are only a guide as to what to expect. At the competition the circuit will only be revealed as the competition is about to start.

Mice must travel clockwise round the circuit following the track (which is the continuous light line shown on the example layouts). The inwardly projecting lines are provided for more intelligent mice to use as reference points. This circuit will change for each competition.

IMPORTANT

Over the last 2 years a number of competitors have experienced problems with the surface reflectivity of the IEE pre-printed mouse mat. For the year 2001 event mice will run on a matte black painted surface having the white line laid out in 3 layers of 50 mm wide white masking tape. The recommended matte black paint is either International or Signpost brand matte black blackboard paint which is easily and cheaply available in most DIY superstores. Note that two or three thin coats will give a better running surface than one thick coat.

Figure 3 - Formula 2 Track Layout Possibilities

Last changed 27/12/01