2026 IEEE Montclair Micromouse Competition

Held in conjunction with the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Interdisciplinary Applications (IEEE ISAIA 2026)

Event Schedule

• 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM  —  Maze transportation, assembly, and setup

• 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM  —  Open practice for participating teams

• 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM  —  Competitions

• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM  —  Maze disassembly / award ceremony

Event Description

The 2026 IEEE Montclair Micromouse Competition will be inaugurated on October 10, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, in conjunction with the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Interdisciplinary Applications (ISAIA 2026) at Montclair State University, New Jersey. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Mr. Gim Soon Wan and Dr. Andrew R. Sass, organizers of the IEEE MIT Micromouse and IEEE Long Island Micromouse competitions, whose expertise and support have been instrumental in launching this new competition in New Jersey. 

A Micromouse is a small, autonomous, battery-powered robot designed to navigate an unknown maze without human intervention. It combines embedded computing, robotics, sensors, and artificial intelligence to explore unknown maze configurations, learn their layout, and determine an optimal route from the start to the destination. The key challenge is to navigate the maze quickly, accurately, and reliably — including at high speed — without colliding with the walls. The objective of the competition is to design and build a Micromouse that can autonomously solve a specified maze and complete the fastest possible run.

Eligible Participants

All IEEE Student Members and Graduate Student Members are eligible to participate. High school students (non-IEEE members) are also welcome. Participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. High school participants are required to attend a 30-minute introductory session on IEEE and how IEEE can support them as they pursue their undergraduate studies and future engineering careers. 

Each team may have no more than five members.

Registration Guidelines

• Please click https://events.vtools.ieee.org/event/register/574594 to register for your competition

• Each team must complete the registration before September 30, 2026. 

• Each team may consist of up to five members and may enter one robot in the competition.

• For IEEE Student Members, please register using your IEEE credentials. Participants who do not have an IEEE account should select the “Register as Guest” option

• Registration Fees: 

  • College Teams: $20 per team

  • High School Teams: $10 per team

Note: Registration for the Micromouse Competition is separate from registration for the IEEE ISAIA Conference. Participants who register only for the Micromouse Competition are not eligible to attend the main IEEE ISAIA Conference programs or activities.

Participation and Design Awards

Whether your Micromouse is fully functional, partially working, or you do not have one yet, you are welcome to participate — it is never too late to start.

In addition to awards for the fastest maze-solving Micromouse, we will recognize outstanding engineering through the Most Innovative Micromouse Design Award. These awards recognize creativity, engineering design, and technical innovation — not simply speed. A Micromouse does not need to successfully solve the maze to compete for this award. 

Most Innovative Micromouse Design Award 

This award will be based on an oral presentation highlighting the team's overall engineering approach. There is no required presentation format, but teams are encouraged to address:

• Overall design goals and strategies

• System architecture, including mechanical and control systems

• Design choices for key functions such as locomotion and sensing

• Software and navigation algorithms

• Implementation, testing, and results

• Conclusions and lessons learned 

Teams are encouraged to highlight their most innovative contributions, whether in algorithms, software, mechanical design, electronics, sensing, or control. Each team will have 10 minutes for the presentation, followed by up to 5 minutes for Q&A.

New to Micromouse? Start Now! 

If you have never worked on a Micromouse before but are interested in developing one, start now! With about one month remaining before the competition, there is still time to build and program a basic Micromouse. You may use a commercially available robot kit as a starting point and modify or program it to navigate the maze. 

Even if your robot is not fully functional — or does not move at all — we encourage you to participate. The competition is also an opportunity to showcase your engineering ideas, creativity, programming, and learning. Your robot's performance in the maze is only one measure of success: a well-designed or innovative Micromouse can still earn a competition award. 

Please contact Dr. Xiwang Guo, Registration Chair (xiwang.guo@kean.edu), with any questions. 

Competition Rules

Rules for the Micromouse

1.  A Micromouse shall be self-contained (no remote controls). A Micromouse shall not use an energy source employing a combustion process.

2.  A Micromouse shall not leave any part of its body behind while negotiating the maze.

3. A Micromouse shall not jump over, fly over, climb, scratch, cut, burn, mark, damage, or destroy the walls of the maze.

4. A Micromouse shall not be larger, either in length or in width, than 25 centimeters. The dimensions of a Micromouse that changes its geometry during a run shall not be greater than 25 cm × 25 cm. There are no restrictions on the height of a Micromouse.

5. Any violation of these rules will constitute immediate disqualification.

Rules for the Maze

1. The maze is composed of multiples of an 18 cm × 18 cm unit square. The maze comprises 16 × 16 unit squares. The walls of the maze are 5 cm high and 1.2 cm thick (assume 5% tolerance for mazes). The outside wall encloses the entire maze.

2. he sides of the maze walls are white, the tops of the walls are red, and the floor is black. The maze is made of wood, finished with non-gloss paint.

WARNING: Do not assume the walls are consistently white, or that the tops of the walls are consistently red, or that the floor is consistently black. Fading may occur, and parts from different mazes may be used. Do not assume the floor provides a given amount of friction — it is simply painted plywood and may be quite slick. The maze floor may be constructed using multiple sheets of plywood, so there may be a seam on which any low-hanging parts of a mouse may snag.

3. The start of the maze is located at one of the four corners. The start square is bounded on three sides by walls. The start line is located between the first and second squares — as the mouse exits the corner square, the time starts. The destination goal is the four cells at the center of the maze.

4. At the center of this zone is a post, 20 cm high, with each side measuring 2.5 cm (this post may be removed if requested). The destination square has only one entrance.

5. Small square zones (posts), each 1.2 cm × 1.2 cm, at the four corners of each unit square are called lattice points. The maze is constituted such that there is at least one wall at each lattice point.

6. Multiple paths to the destination square are allowed and are to be expected. The destination square will be positioned so that a wall-hugging mouse will NOT be able to find it.

Rules for the Contest

1. Each contesting Micromouse is allocated a total of 10 minutes of access to the maze from the moment the contest administrator acknowledges the contestant(s) and grants access to the maze. Any time used to adjust a mouse between runs is included in the 10 minutes. Each run (from the start cell to the center zone) in which a mouse successfully reaches the destination square is given a run time. The minimum run time shall be the mouse's official time. First prize goes to the mouse with the shortest official time; second prize to the next shortest, and so on.

Note: The 10-minute timer continues even between runs. Mice that do not reach the center square will be ranked by their final distance from the goal; the mouse ending closest to the goal will receive the higher ranking. All mice that enter the center square within their 10-minute allotment are ranked higher than those that do not.

2. Each run shall be made from the starting square. The operator may abort a run at any time. If an operator touches the Micromouse during a run, it is deemed aborted, and the mouse must be removed from the maze. If a mouse has already crossed the finish line, it may be removed at any time without affecting the run time of that run. If a mouse is placed back in the maze for another run, a one-time penalty of 30 seconds will be added to the mouse's next run time.

3. After the maze is disclosed, the operator shall not feed information on the maze into the Micromouse; however, switch positions may be changed.

4. The illumination, temperature, and humidity of the room shall be those of an ambient environment (40–120°F, 0%–95% humidity, non-condensing).

BEWARE: Do not make any assumptions about the amount of sunlight, incandescent light, or fluorescent light that may be present at the contest site.

5. The run timer starts when the front edge of the mouse crosses the start line and stops when the front edge of the mouse crosses the finish line. The start line is at the boundary between the starting unit square and the next unit square clockwise. The finish line is at the entrance to the destination square.

Many thanks for the sponsorship from MeritPoint Academy for this competition! 

About MeritPoint Academy

MeritPoint Academy is an academic research and education platform dedicated to helping students develop strong skills in AI, computer science, data science, and interdisciplinary research. 

MeritPoint Academy provides structured research mentorship and academic training for high school and college students, guiding them through the entire research process — from topic selection and literature review to research design, programming, data analysis, paper writing, and conference or journal submission. Its programs combine personalized mentorship, hands-on research experience, and AI-powered learning tools to help students develop independent research skills and build meaningful academic portfolios. 

MeritPoint Academy’s mission is to empower the next generation of innovators and researchers through accessible, high-quality academic mentorship and research opportunities.