Kane, StevenScott, Jonathan B.2011-01-102011-01-102009Kane, S. & Scott, J. (2009). The slot car stig: Performance and consistency of a slot car driven by a heuristic algorithm in an embedded microcontroller. The 16th Electronics New Zealand Conference. Dunedin, New Zealand; 18-20 November 2009. p.1-4.978-0-473-16099-9https://hdl.handle.net/10289/4911We present theory and measured performance of an autonomous slot car driven by a heuristic algorithm on a typical track. The hardware consists of a PIC 8-bit single-chip microcontroller with various sensors driving a standard permanent-magnet (PM) brushed dc (BDC) motor in a mechanically-standard Scalextric platform. We present some interesting results concerning the relative difficulty of apparently-balanced lanes on a track. The car achieves optimum lap times with high consistency. Measured performance agrees with theoretical expectation. The consistency of performance allows the impact of experimental changes to be reliably assessed.application/pdfen© 2009 The author.electronicsConference Contribution