An open-source robotic system that can play chess with humans

The open-source robotic system developed by TU Delft researchers for playing chess includes both hardware and software components. The hardware components are:

1. Franka Emika Panda robotic arm with 7 degrees of freedom
2. Franka robotic hand
3. Customized 3D-printed robotic gripper
4. ZED2 StereoLabs camera
5. Keyboard
6. External microphone and speaker connected to a computer
7. NVIDIA Jetson Nano computer
8. PC

The software components are:

1. Perception module: Analyzes images of the chess board captured by the ZED2 camera and translates them into text descriptions.
2. Analysis and evaluation module: Feeds text descriptions to a chess engine to derive predicted moves and their corresponding scores.
3. Motion planning and execution module: Uses a predicted move to plan and execute the robot's chess moves.
4. Interaction module: Allows the robot to communicate with the human players they are competing against. It relies on the API of OpenAI's conversational platform ChatGPT to generate responses to a user's questions.

The chess-playing robot developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) uses a combination of hardware and software components to plan and execute its moves1.

1. Hardware Components: The robot's hardware includes a Franka Emika Panda robotic arm with 7 degrees of freedom, a Franka robotic hand, a customized 3D-printed robotic gripper, a ZED2 StereoLabs camera, a keyboard, an external microphone and speaker connected to a computer, an NVIDIA Jetson Nano computer, and a PC.

2. Software Components: The robot's software components include a perception module, an analysis and evaluation module, a motion planning and execution module, and an interaction module.

   • Perception Module: This module analyzes images of the chess board captured by the ZED2 camera and translates them into text descriptions.
   • Analysis and Evaluation Module: This module feeds the text descriptions to a chess engine, which then derives predicted moves and their corresponding scores.
   • Motion Planning and Execution Module: This module uses the predicted move from the chess engine to plan and execute the robot's chess moves36.
   • Interaction Module: This module allows the robot to communicate with the human players it is competing against. It relies on the API of OpenAI's conversational platform, ChatGPT, to generate responses to user questions.

The robot, named OpenChessRobot, recognizes chess pieces using computer vision, executes moves, and interacts with the human player using voice and robotic gestures. The researchers evaluated the robot's ability to compete against humans at chess in a series of initial tests and found that it could effectively plan its future chess moves and move pieces to the desired locations on the board3. The robot's underlying code and the datasets used to train its classifiers are open-source and can be accessed on GitHub.