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Chess playing robot

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AwesomeAtti

Hello everyone!

I'd like to re-introduce a new member, @lilian-660025. There may have been some misunderstandings about their original intent. I think they are working on a interesting project (this is not an endorsement). They aren't advertising anything, rather they want to gather feedback from others about what you look for in an eboard and chess robot. please remember english is not their first language and they are learning to use the forum.

In short, they are with a company that has developed other game playing robots and they are gathering information from others to apply their existing technologies to a chess robot that automatically moves pieces on a chess board. I think it's an opportunity for interested members to influence development.

@lilian-660025 can share more and has provided some information on their profile as well...

lilian-660025

Thanks for introducing me to everyone and clarifying my intentions!

Yes I am currently collecting the features request in order to develop our chess robot, whose biggest highlight is the combination of the mechanical arm with AI technology.

The link to questionnaire about features

Preference for smart chess robot features

Our on the market Go robot

See my profile to get more infos about our company and current robots! Also welcome to DM me for further details happy

AwesomeAtti

I think it's a cute looking robot. The arm likely operates faster than pulleys and magnets under the board to move pieces (especially if the arm can hold two pieces when capturing).

How do you imagine piece/move detection to work? Would it use the camera to detect a piece has moved? Would it be able to recognize pieces if I setup a particular position (I think some people might like this).

As you are likely aware, I think this will be better for slower games. Bullet and blitz are likely too fast for the bot to keep up.

I would use a device like this for playing others online. Perhaps the robot also creates a unique experience to see and hear a live opponent. Perhaps a robot opponent could talk to me like Siri or Google.

Training mode could be interesting because it could demonstrate why a move was good or not good.. then reverse the moves and get back to a game. Post game review would be very interesting.

I also really like playing bots.

lilian-660025
AwesomeAtti wrote:

I think it's a cute looking robot. The arm likely operates faster than pulleys and magnets under the board to move pieces (especially if the arm can hold two pieces when capturing).

How do you imagine piece/move detection to work? Would it use the camera to detect a piece has moved? Would it be able to recognize pieces if I setup a particular position (I think some people might like this).

As you are likely aware, I think this will be better for slower games. Bullet and blitz are likely too fast for the bot to keep up.

I would use a device like this for playing others online. Perhaps the robot also creates a unique experience to see and hear a live opponent. Perhaps a robot opponent could talk to me like Siri or Google.

Training mode could be interesting because it could demonstrate why a move was good or not good.. then reverse the moves and get back to a game. Post game review would be very interesting.

I also really like playing bots.


Yes, it uses a camera to detect the board, enabling it to play from any given endgame position you set uphappy. This is a feature that has already been implemented in our current product.

Thank you for your other suggestions, I will take them into careful consideration

chessmaster_diamond

You could make it look a little less goofy. wink.png

lilian-660025
chessmaster_diamond wrote:

You could make it look a little less goofy.

Hi! Do you mean not too cute in appearance?

AwesomeAtti

What is the size and resolution of the display on the robot?

I like imagining what the UI/UX might be. It would be fun to try creating some "expressions" for the robot.

It does look a bit teletubby-ish and childish but I don't know how else it could look. Otherwise, it's redeveloping the entire platform. Maybe the expressions can help change it's personality.

chessmaster_diamond
lilian-660025 hat geschrieben:
chessmaster_diamond wrote:

You could make it look a little less goofy.

Hi! Do you mean not too cute in appearance?

Yeah. A little more adult-looking, less Wall-E. wink.png

Yenster1

@lilian-660025 I like the idea of a fully robotic chess opponent and have seen other products with similar visions. Those other products were met with some difficulties that never quite worked out. If your company truly has a desire to develop a (an externally) robotic chess game to market, then here's my 2 cents.

Speed - movements need to be quite fast so that we don't feel like we're waiting too much.

Noise - Some previous attempts at robotic chess boards were noisy enough to deter playing in quiet rooms, and were quite annoying to the ear, so the closer to noiseless, the better.

Mechanical Durability - hopefully the mechanics will be durable and will last for years without much maintenance. If some maintenance is needed, then it should be fairly simple.

Accuracy - be able to accurately move, and detect movements, of pieces according to rules of chess. Beyond the general piece movements, it would be nice to adapt to 'touch move' rule, toppled pieces, off-centered pieces, or such things that will not 'confuse' the robot.

Aesthetics - there's a wide audience when it comes to chess, and many would prefer that this won't feel like a cheap toy. The board should feel fairly solid, and the pieces should feel nice to handle. I believe most people prefer some weight to the pieces, and also not too small to grip.

Cost - obviously we don't want products that are cost prohibitive, and this could be a major hurdle. Given that chess pieces would be larger and heavier than those 'Go' pieces, the desire to have fast and quiet robotics may put a strain on the price of engineering and quality of materials. If it hasn't been done already, your company may want to do a cost feasibility study and determine what people are willing to pay for something like this.

Cheers

lilian-660025
AwesomeAtti wrote:

What is the size and resolution of the display on the robot?

I like imagining what the UI/UX might be. It would be fun to try creating some "expressions" for the robot.

It does look a bit teletubby-ish and childish but I don't know how else it could look. Otherwise, it's redeveloping the entire platform. Maybe the expressions can help change it's personality.

Hi!Our current robots are equipped with 5-inch IPS high-definition displays with a resolution of 1280x720. The newly launched robots may make slight adjustments to this specificationhappy

lilian-660025
chessmaster_diamond wrote:
lilian-660025 hat geschrieben:
chessmaster_diamond wrote:

You could make it look a little less goofy.

Hi! Do you mean not too cute in appearance?

Yeah. A little more adult-looking, less Wall-E.

Noted,thanks for the advise. Could you please help finish this questionnaire about your prefenrence on features?

Preferences for Smart Chess board Features

lilian-660025
Yenster1 wrote:

@lilian-660025 I like the idea of a fully robotic chess opponent and have seen other products with similar visions. Those other products were met with some difficulties that never quite worked out. If your company truly has a desire to develop a (an externally) robotic chess game to market, then here's my 2 cents.

Speed - movements need to be quite fast so that we don't feel like we're waiting too much.

Noise - Some previous attempts at robotic chess boards were noisy enough to deter playing in quiet rooms, and were quite annoying to the ear, so the closer to noiseless, the better.

Mechanical Durability - hopefully the mechanics will be durable and will last for years without much maintenance. If some maintenance is needed, then it should be fairly simple.

Accuracy - be able to accurately move, and detect movements, of pieces according to rules of chess. Beyond the general piece movements, it would be nice to adapt to 'touch move' rule, toppled pieces, off-centered pieces, or such things that will not 'confuse' the robot.

Aesthetics - there's a wide audience when it comes to chess, and many would prefer that this won't feel like a cheap toy. The board should feel fairly solid, and the pieces should feel nice to handle. I believe most people prefer some weight to the pieces, and also not too small to grip.

Cost - obviously we don't want products that are cost prohibitive, and this could be a major hurdle. Given that chess pieces would be larger and heavier than those 'Go' pieces, the desire to have fast and quiet robotics may put a strain on the price of engineering and quality of materials. If it hasn't been done already, your company may want to do a cost feasibility study and determine what people are willing to pay for something like this.

Cheers

Thank you for your detailed feedback! We take the issues you mentioned very seriously because some existing robotic arm chessboard products have such problems. We will definitely launch a product that clearly demonstrates that we have resolved these issues. Also hope that you can fill out this questionnaire, which includes questions about specific features and price acceptance, to further share your views on these two aspects.Thank you!

Preferences for Smart Chess board Features

Robotvinnik

To keep the price down on the chess pieces, why don't you just use flat disc pieces like your Go computer.

play4fun64

GM Grischuk played against a Robot

chessmaster_diamond

Yenster1's list is very informative. I cannot emphasize how important this point is:

"Mechanical Durability - hopefully the mechanics will be durable and will last for years without much maintenance. If some maintenance is needed, then it should be fairly simple."

The few machines with a mechanical robot arm that were ever developed in the past all failed in this important category: The "Boris Handroid" never made it to market, and the "Novag Robot" was a mechanical fiasco (of the thousands of these expensive machines they sold, only a few are still working).

When looking at the Go Robot you developed, this is the type of cute/childish design that I'm sure appeals to Asian customers, but probably won't work for most Westerners (or, generally, the users of this forum).

As for Robtovinik's suggestion for disc pieces to lessen the mechanical problems, IMHO that's a no-go. Who wants to play with discs? Might as well play checkers.

Robotvinnik

My disc recommendation wasn't to lessen the mechanic problems it was to lessen the cost of production costs and I for one would like the discs alternative.

DaTrueSliverwolf
This would be a fun thing to practice with/against, I would maybe buy it
lilian-660025
chessmaster_diamond wrote:

Yenster1's list is very informative. I cannot emphasize how important this point is:

"Mechanical Durability - hopefully the mechanics will be durable and will last for years without much maintenance. If some maintenance is needed, then it should be fairly simple."

The few machines with a mechanical robot arm that were ever developed in the past all failed in this important category: The "Boris Handroid" never made it to market, and the "Novag Robot" was a mechanical fiasco (of the thousands of these expensive machines they sold, only a few are still working).

When looking at the Go Robot you developed, this is the type of cute/childish design that I'm sure appeals to Asian customers, but probably won't work for most Westerners (or, generally, the users of this forum).

As for Robtovinik's suggestion for disc pieces to lessen the mechanical problems, IMHO that's a no-go. Who wants to play with discs? Might as well play checkers.

Thanks for your comment. I would like to clarify that our current 2 robots have been mass-produced and sold nearly 100k units,the consumer satisfaction rate achieved higher than 99.4% on Chinese E-commerce platform, with a very low rate of return for repair, and all repairs are done by the manufacturer, just like purchasing a regular household appliance like robot vacuum.So really dont have to worry about maintenancehappy

I understand that Robotvinnik provided the solution with good intentions, but we have already decided to use classic chess pieces,not disc pieces

Also could you please fill in the questionnaire about the specific features you want to implement on the robot?

Preferences On Smart Chess board Features

chessmaster_diamond

Done.

Yes, I've seen your two existing robots "in action". A classical piece design will however present new challenges for creating a robot arm that can precisely pick up and move the very diverse pieces in a chess set.

lilian-660025
chessmaster_diamond wrote:

Done.

Yes, I've seen your two existing robots "in action". A classical piece design will however present new challenges for creating a robot arm that can precisely pick up and move the very diverse pieces in a chess set.

Thank you! Yes it is a challenge we have to overcome.Could you please share more opinion on the speed it moves? of our existing robots

Here's a video shows the real move