Wizard chess: An autonomous chess playing robot

Abstract

Robotic chess is an emerging problem domain in the field of human-robot interaction. In this paper, Wizard Chess, an autonomous chess playing robotic system is introduced, which is capable of recognizing all possible chess board states, generating subsequent moves as well as executing those moves. Existing chess playing robots use camera for the detection of game states and articulated robotic arm for the movement of pieces on the board which make these robots particularly complex and highly expensive. Compared to these prior works, Wizard Chess is architecturally simple, low-cost and feasible in case of personal use, educational and recreational purposes. In this system, an X-Y Cartesian table is used for moving chess pieces along the board. Additionally, sixty-four magnetic reed switches are used for determining the current game state. A prototype of the proposed robotic chess is implemented and an extensive performance evaluation is presented in this paper which shows the feasibility of the system in real-life situations.