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Solving the Maze

The most common maze solving algorithm used by micromice is the "flood fill" or "modified flood fill" algorithm. You can find a lot of information about this algorithm on other sites, so I won't go into great detail as to how it works. I will say that at a certain point (when your mouse is fast enough to explore the whole maze in less than a few minutes) other maze solving techniques become more appealing than flood fill, but it's definitely the best place to start. Our mapping genius Devin Boyer turned out some pretty slick mapping code loosely based on the flood fill technique for both '31 and '32, and for the sake of explaining the mapping in a straightforward way, put together a little .swf visualization file.

To navigate your "mouse" through the .swf maze, use the "right" arrow. To step back use the "left" arrow. Cell values correspond to flood fill calculated values (there are a few errors, but it's mostly right). Click on the maze to "select" it before using the arrow keys ...

Check out the visualization by clicking here.