XT-1 is a super-fast micro mouse robot that won first place in the 28th annual All Japan Micro Mouse competition. Xt-1 was shown by Mr. Yusuke Kato of the workshop Robocon Nagoya Institute of Technology. The competition features fully autonomouse robots, not remote-controlled devices.
Take a look at this display of speed and precision.
(XT-1 micro mouse)
As far as I can tell, the video shows the robot following a correct path directly through the maze, after previously exploring it and building up an optimal route to the center. XT-1 set new records on each of its runs; the Google translation of the event page says that XT-1 "wowed the audience".
XT-1 really makes you think of the "golden shuttles" from The Mechanical Mice, a 1941 short story by Eric Frank Russel (writing as Maurice A. Hugi).
... there came a very tiny, very subtle and extremely high-pitched whine. Something small, metallic, glittering had shot through one of the rat holes, fled across the floor..
The thing had been a cylindrical, polished object resembling the shuttle of a sewing machine, but about four times the size...
(Read more about golden shuttles)
Russel's golden shuttles are the direct predecessors of the robot mice from Ray Bradbury's 1950 story There Will Come Soft Rains and the clever dustmice from Greg Bear's 1990 novel Queen of Angels.
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...' - David C. Cooke, 1939.
Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin
'...tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent, 1934.
Finger Sensors For Robot Hands
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
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