C. Matuszek, B. Mayton, R. Aimi, M. P. Deisenroth, L. Bo,
R. Chu, M. Kung, L. LeGrand, J. R. Smith, D. Fox
Gambit: A Robust Chess-Playing Robotic System
Proc. of ICRA 2011
Abstract
This paper presents Gambit, a custom, mid-cost 6-DoF
robot manipulator system that can play physical board
games against human opponents in non-idealized environments.
Historically, unconstrained robotic manipulation in board games
has often proven to be more challenging than the underlying
game reasoning, making it an ideal testbed for small-scale
manipulation. The Gambit system includes a low-cost Kinect-style
visual sensor, a custom manipulator, and state-of-the-art
learning algorithms for automatic detection and recognition of
the board and objects on it. As a use-case, we describe playing
chess quickly and accurately with arbitrary, uninstrumented
boards and pieces, demonstrating that Gambit's engineering and
design represent a new state-of-the-art in fast, robust tabletop
manipulation.