Automatic Chess Board
Introduction
The aim of this project is to make a mechanism which can play chess with humans by moving physical pieces without humans touching them. Three linear actuators will be used to achieve this goal. To keep the mechanism hidden from view, it is located underneath the chess board. Stockfish software is integrated into the code so it is possible to either play against a computer (where the user physically moves their pieces and inputs the move into the software so that the data structure can be updated with correct physical location of the pieces) the moves for one color and the software returns the best move for the other color or let stockfish play against itself (control both colors).
This was a group project done by 4 people. Each of us were responsible for one aspect of the project (listed below) but helped each other out whenever we could.
Aayush Amrit (BU ENG '23) : Design lead
Abin George (BU ENG '23) : Programming Lead
Adam Bahlous-Boldi (BU ENG '23): Team Lead
Kyle Fieleke (BU ENG '23): Building Lead
Design
The design process consisted of first making a sketch of the overall idea and then another detailed sketch of one linear actuator. These sketches were hand drawn. Once these designs were finalized, the parts were designed and put together on Solidworks. Each linear stage has with an Al 8020 extrusion, a slider, a belt, 2 belt pulleys, and a stepper motor. The slider is pressure fitted to the belt and moves with it. The stepper motors are connected to an Arduino. There are two linear actuators in the x direction and one in the y direction and the whole mechanism looks like the letter H. The slider on the linear actuator in the y direction has a extruder motor attached to it which is used to move a magnet in the z direction. Each piece of the chess board has a small metal piece attached to it at the bottom. The magnet moves in the vertical direction to attach and detach from the piece. As the magnet is under the board and the pieces are above the board, the board is required to be thin enough for the magnets to work but not too thin so that the magnetic force is too high.
Building the Mechanism
Five Al 8020 extrusions are used to form the major structure of the mechanism, two of which only serve the purpose of keeping the opposite sides of the H parallel to each other. The sliders which were designed in Solidworks were 3D printed and inserted into the slots on the 8020 extrusions. The stepper motors were screwed onto the 8020 extrusions at desired locations. The extrusions were then fit to each other using screws. Belts were inserted into the slots in the slider and held in place using pressure fitting. It was made sure the belts were tensioned properly when looped around the pulleys attached to the motors. The stepper motors were connected to an Arduino mega to control the motion of chess pieces.
