Work Plan and Proposed Budget
Practically, Micromouse development may incur several difficulties either in hardware development, software development or integration of both systems and may consume longer time than work plan. In hardware development, the difficulties may be in terms of getting a precise robot movement, for instance, turning to a certain degrees or navigating at high speed and stop exactly at the centre of the junction. Prior to this, a lot of troubleshooting, calibration and testing have to be done to ensure the system is reliable and functions as the specification needed. Since the development of the Micromouse is divided into subsystems, the troubleshooting, calibration and testing activities will be much easier to be carried out.
On the other hand, developing the algorithm for the software will be the most challenging. Micromouse has a very limited vision as it cannot see beyond the walls. Thus, the programmer has to build an algorithm in such a way that the Micromouse is a ‘blind person’. The algorithm enables the Micromouse to think like human, such as sensing the environment, mapping the route, decide which route to take and finally, return to the starting point. As a result, the development of the algorithm will be done stage by stage according to the task it has to carry out followed by functionality test in every stage. For this reason, a test simulator will be created using Proteus 7 Professional to simulate the output, for instance the movement of the motors. Below is the Gantt Chart and proposed budget for this project:
| No. | Description | Quantity | Unit Price | Total |
| 1. | Microcontroller PIC 16F877A | 1 | 25.00 | 25.00 |
| 2. | PIC Start-up Kit | 1 | 45.00 | 45.00 |
| 3. | Robot chassis c/w wheels | 1 | 150.00 | 150.00 |
| 4. | Stepper motors | 2 | 270.00 | 540.00 |
| 5. | Stepper motor driver | 2 | 75.00 | 150.00 |
| 6. | Batteries and battery charger | 1 set | 40.00 | 40.00 |
| 7. | Infrared Sensors | 3 | 86.00 | 258.00 |
| 8. | Battery holder | 2 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 9. | Passive components | - | - | 30.00 |
| 10. | Active components | - | - | 100.00 |
| 11. | Printed Circuit Board | - | - | 150.00 |
| 12. | Maze | 1 set | 200.00 | 200.00 |
| TOTAL | 1,691.00 | |||
Not much can be done in this week as final exam is just around the corner. Thus, the hardware development will be continued after final examination is over.
