An autonomous robot playing the board game checkers

International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Jan 1998 by Zribi, M, Sung, E

8 CONCLUSION

A project entitled `An autonomous robot capable of playing the board game checkers' was designed and implemented within the eight weeks allocated to the project. Within this time-span, a group of sixteen second year students had more than achieved the objectives of the project.

The vision (EYE) group managed to develop a vision system that can identify a move made by a human player on the checkers board. In addition, the system can also send information to the BRAIN module. Further improvements were also implemented to make the vision system more stable and reliable. The vision system can adapt to many random changes and different conditions such as fluctuations in light illumination.

The checkers software (BRAIN) group achieved its objectives of creating a programme which can play the game, checkers, quite well. The programme generates the best move based on the alpha-beta pruning algorithm. The students managed to create a programme that is able to do a two-move-ahead search within a very short time span. The programme was further improved with interesting features such as the ability to make a king 'fly' and to make spectacular multiple jumps. The students also designed a graphical interface, which makes the game very user-friendly.

The group of students working on the HAND module explored the full capabilities of the robot and put it to full use. Various functions of the robot were used to maximise the comfort and efficiency of the game. The robot group has also looked into the interface between the HAND and the BRAIN. In addition, the robot team has implemented various new hardware to make the game a more interactive and interesting one. Effects such as voice recording, music and instrumentation like a control panel and feeder, were introduced.

Several additional features were added to the system. These additional features include: speech, graphical message display, feeder system to facilitate removal of seeds, user control panel, time limit on the player, LED display countdown for the time, and 'wait' and 'move' LED display, intelligent board clearing system, and soft music while the computer is thinking.

The project has not only served its basic purpose of providing the students with good technical training but has also helped them tremendously in realising the importance of basic values such as working in groups. It should be noted that most of the students enjoyed working on this project. It is the opinion of the authors that projects similar to this are of great value to today's electrical and electronic engineers.

9 REFERENCES

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[5] Eshed Robotec, SCORBOT-ER VII User's Manual (1990)

[6] DCI Smart Lab., 8255/82531/0 Card and Terminator Board Operating Manual (1990)