The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth

Those turns are unreal, it looks like the mouse is simply teleporting across across certain parts of the maze

The section about the mouse choosing the longer but straighter path really struck home with me. Too often in map software, and even games with a GPS system, the "shorter" path will be taken, even though the longer path is actually faster when factoring in deceleration, waiting at stop signs, etc. It's really a fascinating area for optimization.

Probably this might get lost in the sea of comments, but I just want to say that this video made me choose my first club at my university. We have an IEEE club, and it has a micromouse year-long project. I was so thrilled when I first heard about it. I am a CS major, but I've dabbled a little in electronics. I am exited about how it is going to go for me.

Whoever does the animations to accompany the explanations for these videos deserves a raise! Those were top notch and absolutely vital to the effectiveness of this video!

One thing I like about this engineering competition is that, since there aren't heavy financial incentives involved (like pretty much any other engineering project), people are given the chance to try whatever they want and be as innovative as they like.

As an electronics engineer this was one of my favorite projects that I have ever done. From the firmware, circuit design , algorithms and mechanical design every part of this robot is just pure absolute joy of engineering.

Wow, this brings back memories. As a student, I helped the IEEE bring the first Micromouse competition to Australia in 1988. Our team (Macquarie University) didn't win that year, but did the next and went to Singapore to represent Australia. I remember we had to use tape differently. We had developed our mouse on a practice maze where the surface had become slippery over time. When we went to the competition maze, which was new, the wheels gripped a lot more than we were used to - so we wrapped tape around the wheels to reduce grip and match actual performance to the motion model the mouse was using. We all learnt a lot about robotics and real-time coding. It was a fantastic tool. (I still have all the photos somewhere...)

14:16 I love the shocked reactions from the spectators.

Man, seriously.. The guys behind the video editing and simulations in your videos are pure genius. Wish I could meet such guys to learn from.

As an electronic engineer, this is one of the most epic electronic engineering vids I've seen. Thanks Veritasium

Man, this is fascinating. Initially I thought this was a remote controlled competition, but after seeing how fast they were moving I knew that wasn't possible. It's really impressive what we can do with robotics these days, even on such a small scale!

In 1980 I was 15, bought my first electronics magazine. It had a micromouse article, that inspired me to get into computers. At 58, I'm a software developer for my own business.

It’d be cool to see a maze with different elevations throughout.

When the guy you were interviewing said "you come along one day, you see everything and you go "huh. that doesn't look to hard, i could do that,' but then you find yourself sucked into a deep and rewarding hobby" i felt that in my bones. I got into rc planes much the same way. Honestly watching this micromouse thing made me think the same thing like huh i bet i could make a mouse..

It was neat watching the engineering evolve from just mapping the maze to taping off the wheels to increase traction

Humans are absolutely beautiful. Both the people competing and over 12 million people on YouTube are invested in the idea of making a tiny robot solve a maze and it’s so random and came from just one person and now it’s huge. Sometimes I need things like this to remind me humans are pretty neat sometimes

the way they manage to maintain a perfect distance from the walls, and go SO FAST is insane

20:20 Imagine a giant cylindrical maze where the mice can go upside down. Or even a maze with loops like in Sonic, so the mice will have to account for more than a 2D map of the area.

Cannot believe i watched an entire documentary about small little robots having the same g force as formula 1 cars and going so fast you can barely see it, Loved it.

Gotta say my thanks as this video helped me create a first person maze game based on the maze circuit designs on the video for a university project and the panel/judge loved it with the addition of a horror theme through sounds, lighting, and objects in the distance. It was also interesting to learn about the micromouse competition while I was at it and I was able to replicate the diagonal movements the micromouse make on the mazes on my game. Thank you again.