I have been involved with mentoring robotics to primary and secondary school students for many years. However, you might not know that back in 2023, I took over the role of Rescue Maze Challenge Coordinator for Robocup Junior Australia at the national level when my friend, Neil Gray, went to the US for a few years.
One of the primary projects I championed was the creation of a simpler Maze challenge than the original Open Maze challenge. We wanted something that beginners and younger students would enjoy getting involved with, which had a much gentler learning curve and lower cost barriers than the existing Open Maze challenge. This new division was named Mighty Maisy Maze (MMM) and was based on ideas that Neil had before he left.
This article has a video demonstration of a Rescue Maze robot created with a single Spike Prime kit. The robot was created to work for Mighty Maisy Maze Rescue challenge and is called “Maisy”.
Mighty Maisy Maze
“Maisy” is using 2 ports for the motors, a port for the ultrasonic sensor to follow the wall at a fixed distance, a port for the colour sensor for victim detection, black hole detection and start/finish tile detection, and finally a port for the touch sensor to detect when the robot has run into a wall.
Hints: You can use the More Sensor Blocks extension to be able to read raw RGB values. This will allow for easy detection of silver (as opposed to white) using the red value. You can also convert RGB to HSI values for more accurate detection of colours regardless of lighting conditions or shades. See the articles in the more information section below.
Note: Take note of the cable management used in the robot, it is important to ensure that the excess cables cannot get caught on anything.
Demonstration Video
Here is a video showing the robot in action on a Flat Pack Maze course.
Robocup Junior Australia: Mighty Maisy Maze Demo (direct link)
Note: There are no penalties for counting a victim more than once. It is expected that some victims will be counted more than once as the robot will often retrace its steps to get through the Maze. What is important is finding each victim at least once and avoiding black tiles (where the floor is missing).
Intermediate Maze
If your students have competed twice in the Mighty Maisy Maze division, they will need to move on to a different division or challenge. In 2025, we added the Intermediate Maze division which takes Mighty Maisy Maze and adds complexity in the form of Rescue Packs for red victims, Floating walls, Debris and Speed Bumps. See the rules on the Robocup Junior Australia website for more information.
More Information
For more information, please see the following articles and websites:
- David’s Robotics Portal
- #MVPBuzz Why I Mentor Robotics
- #Robotics Lego Spike Prime Robots for Rescue Line and Rescue Maze
- New Robocup Junior Rescue Robot Videos and Spike Prime Review
- #Robotics Better Colour Detection by Converting RGB to HSI Values
- Robocup Junior Australia – Rescue Maze (including Rules)
- Robocup Junior Australia – Rescue Maze Resources
Enjoy
David
This article was originally posted on https://www.winthropdc.com/blog.