Competition Rules

Most rules are consistent between MicroMouse competitions, such as what your robot is allowed to do and what the maze is like. However, time allowed, number of runs, and scoring may vary.

See the following documents to check rules for specific events, or see the following sections on this page for a summary of the most important information:

General Rules

The maze always consists of 16x16 cells. The MicroMouse starts in one of the corners and must use only its onboard sensors to navigate the maze. The start cell is always surrounded by walls on three sides. The goal is always a 4-cell area in the center, sometimes with more than one entrance/exit. Maze walls may be freestanding, but there may not be any singular posts except for the one at the center.

Each cell of the maze is 18 cm square. Each wall of the maze is 1.2 cm wide and 5 cm tall. The sides of the maze walls are white, the tops of the walls are red, and the floor is black. The maze is made of wood, finished with non-gloss paint. Note that mazes are not always consistent – your MicroMouse must be able to handle slight differences in the wall and floor.

Individual "runs" from the start to the goal are timed, and only your fastest run is counted. Normally MicroMouse robots will use their first run to methodically search the maze, gathering as much information as possible while it figures out how to reach the center. Then in subsequent runs, the MicroMouse will try to race to the center as fast as possible, often increasing its speed on each subsequent run until it crashes or time runs out.

As far as robot rules go, nothing should be surprising. Your robot must be self-contained (no remote controls), cannot dislodge parts, cannot jump over maze walls, and cannot damage the maze in any way. Your robot cannot be greater than 25 cm in length or width at any time. There is no height constraint.

You may not re-program your robot after the maze has been revealed or feed it any information about the maze. You are allowed to press buttons/change the position of switches (e.g. to select algorithms), replace batteries between runs, adjust sensors, change speed settings, and make repairs.

IEEE Student Competition Rules

Most IEEE student competitions follow the same rules, but we recommend you thoroughly review the rules for whatever competition you are attending in case they decide to change anything.

Notably, teams must consist of at most 5 students. Teams of 4 and 5 can have up to 2 graduate students, and teams of 2 and 3 can only have one. Single graduate student teams are not allowed. Teams must make a presentation describing how every member made a significant contribution to the team's robot.

At IEEE student competitions, each MicroMouse is allowed 10 minutes in the maze to complete as many runs as desired.

The fastest run time without being touched will be the official score.

If a robot does not reach the center, it is judged based on 1) how close it came to the goal without being touched and 2) Evidence that the mouse knows where it is relative to the goal.

APEC Competition Rules

At the APEC MicroMouse competition, each MicroMouse is allowed 7 minutes in the maze, and may only make 5 runs.

APEC applies a "search penalty" to your final score, which is 1/30 of your search time (length of your first run from the start to the goal). This incentivizes robots to use a fast search algorithm.

There is also a "touch penalty" of 2 seconds that will be added to your score if your mouse crashed or needed to be manually restarted prior to your run.

The final score is the time of the fastest run, plus the search penalty and touch penalty if touched.