Portolio of David Elkan-Gonzalez
A 2-axis table was constructed using motors and threaded rods. This table serves to position the electromagnet beneath the board, enabling the movement of pieces.
Wizard's Chess
Team Size: 5
Project Duration: 6 weeks
Year Completed: Sophomore
Key Skills: Mechanical Design, Circuitry
Inspired by the magical version of chess from the world of Harry Potter, as part of a team of five students I spent half a semester working to create wizard's chess. Our design included mechanical, electrical, and software systems. To meet our goal of bringing the magic of wizard's chess to life our device had to be hands free, handle all rules of chess, and be voice-activated. All for a budget of $250, most of which ended up being used replacing Raspberry Pi's.
We constructed a mechanical and electrical system with an x-y table using motors and threaded rods. Due to cost limitations these were largely scavenged from a stockroom. Consequently we ended up with a vastly overpowered set of motors, which likely contributed to the destruction of a few motor controllers. The mechanical system used an electromagnet which moved along beneath the board, latching onto tiny magnets we embedded in the chess pieces. Since the pieces were attracted by the electromagnet only when it was powered, this mechanism was able to selectively grab and move pieces invisibly, as if by magic.
A Raspberry Pi ran the software and controls for this project. It also took in audio data from a microphone which it ran by Google Voice api for translation into text. In order to reduce error, only a very small dictionary of key words was included. Python code translated this text into moves, and ran the proposed moves through a chess simulation to determine results and legality of the move. Any illegal move was disallowed, but legal moves would result in a further planning step as motor commands necessary to move all pieces without collisions were calculated.
This project took an enormous amount of time and effort to get working, involving many long nights and one of the more severe pre-demo rushes I've experienced in a project. Nevertheless on demo day our board worked excellently, though it was a little slow and wobbly due to the badly spec'd motors. If I could redo any project from my time at Olin College, I would likely choose this one. While the team was pleased with the end result, we all had lots of ideas as to improve it.