The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth

this tiny robot Mouse can finish this maze in just six seconds every year around the world people compete in the oldest robotics rooms the goal is simple get to the end of the maze as fast as possible personal you came second lost by 20 milliseconds but competition has grown fierce when somebody saw my design they said you're crazy why is there so much tension what's riding around Anna Anna [Applause] this video is sponsored by onshape in 1952 mathematician Claude Shannon constructed an electronic mouse named Theseus that could solve a maze the trick to making the mouse intelligent was hidden in a computer built into the maze itself made of telephone relay switches the mouse was just a magnet on Wheels essentially following an electromagnet controlled by the position of the relay switches it is now exploring the maze using a rather involved strategy of trial and error as he finds the correct path to register the information in its memory later I can put him down in any part of the maze that he's already explored and he'll be able to go directly to the goal without making a single false turn Theseus is often referred to as one of the first examples of machine learning a director at Google recently said that it inspired the whole field of AI 25 years later editors at The Institute of electrical and electronics Engineers or IEEE caught wind of a contest for electronic mice or lemaus electronique as they had heard they were ecstatic were these the successors to Theseus but something had been Lost in Translation these mice were just batteries and cases not robots capable of intelligent Behavior but the misunderstanding stuck with them and they wondered why couldn't we hold that competition ourselves in 1977 the announcement for ieee's amazing micromouse maze contest attracted over 6 000 entrants but the number of successful competitors dwindled rapidly eventually just 15 entrants reached the finals in 1979. but by this point the contest had garnered enough public interest to be broadcast Nationwide on the evening news and just like the rumor that inspired the competition micromouse began to spread across the world [Music] thank you guys even people in the top two or three you can see them trying to set their mice up and they can barely find the buttons to press because it's absolutely ...