Autonomous Maze-Solving Robot

Built October–December 2025 with my classmate Kyle Tran — a tank-drive robot that autonomously maps and solves a previously unseen maze. The system runs concurrent sensor polling, motor control, and real-time pathfinding on a single Raspberry Pi Pico (MicroPython + asyncio) without blocking the navigation loop, building an internal map of visited cells and backtracking to explore unvisited branches until it finds a way through.

The platform uses ultrasonic and IR sensors for wall/obstacle detection, a tank-drive dual-motor configuration, an I2C LCD with status LEDs for live feedback, and a bench potentiometer for tuning behavior without reflashing firmware.

Kyle led the robot itself: he designed the full robot in CAD and wrote all of the MicroPython firmware. My part was the early concept sketches of the chassis and the test maze the robot had to solve. I laid the maze out and dimensioned it in AutoCAD and designed the 3D-printed corner brackets that join its walls. I also modeled a handful of smaller robot components while learning CAD from Kyle.

Full credit for the robot's CAD and firmware belongs to Kyle. His writeup is linked below.

My side of the build: the early concept sketches and the test maze itself, from the AutoCAD layout to the 3D-printed corner brackets that join its walls.