Maze solving
posted May 11th 2010 11:00am by Mike Szczysfiled under: home entertainment hacks
[Mitchel Humpherys] and his fellow developers didn’t just develop a maze-solving algorithm, they also built a ping-pong ball maze platform that is computer controlled. Using a webcam the computer picks up the high-contrast maze by peering down from above, calculates the solution, and moves the ping-pong ball to the goal using two different tilt servos controlled by an 8051 microcontroller. But wait, there’s more! Why have the computer solve it when you can make a game out of a maze? Once the PC was thrown into the mix it was pretty easy to add Wii remote and Wii balance board control too. See these alternative inputs in action after the break.
Honestly they could have done a little better on the board movement with some better servos and a more refined movement approach since ball-and-plate mechanisms aren’t hard to find information on. But props to them for doing it anyways, not difficult, but well done nonetheless.