Welcome to the Chess bot landing page. This page is home to a python package that manipulates a Widow X robotic arm to play chess in real-time against a human player. The package enables the robot to interpret the changing chess board with machine vision, calculate the best move to make, and then move its chess piece in order to make that move.
Our package was designed to interface with the WidowX kinematic arm. By using this interface our bot can manipulate pieces on the chessboard to execute its moves
The Bot.py file houses the main file of our program. Our main file went through several configurations and we iterated and stove to meet our stretch goals
Further documentation on the story of how we selected this project, where we wanted to go with it and how we got there.
Milestone Blog
We completed this package over a series of project sprints. Read the blog entries we made in between sprints to see more about our progress over time and how we structured the project
Throughout this project we wanted to think about the ethical considerations in the system we were designing, our responsibility for that system as it's designers and the user's responsibility for the system
Eddy is an Engineering: Computing student at Olin College of Engineering. He used to play chess competitively in his earlier years and has decided to make a comeback. Having peaked at a rating of around 1800, he's determined to make a chess algorithm that can play at the same level as himself. This project started from witnessing a chess-playing robot break a young child's finger in a tournament; he's confident we can do better.
Will Young
Will Young is a mechanical engineering student at Olin College of Engineering set to graduate in 2026. He is excited to work on robotic arm control and path planning. He would also like to focus on making sure we have a good system architecture for the project. He says he has watched Gotham Chess like twice, so he’s basically a chess expert.
Kate
Kate is an engineering with robotics student at Olin College of Engineering (Class of 2025). Kate is most excited about working on computer vision as well as getting to work with a robotic arm for the first time.
Dan Park
Dan Park is an engineering with computing student at Olin College of Engineering set to graduate in 2025. He says he got round of 16 for the JPMorgan Chess Competition, so he guesses he’s okay at chess.
Mia Chevere
Mia Chevere is an electrical and computer engineering student at Olin College of Engineering. She’s excited to do the kinematic math involved in moving an arm to specific locations! She says that she never took basic geometry, so she looks forward to the challenge.
