Joshua: DIY Chess Playing Robot

Posted 6 Feb 2009 at 19:02 UTC (updated 6 Feb 2009 at 19:04 UTC) by steve

It's been a couple of years since we mentioned the Joshua DIY chess playing robot, so when I noticed the announcement of a new version, I thought I'd write it up. For those who don't remember, Joshua is a DIY free software / free hardware chess robot that includes schematics as well as complete software with a nice GUI (licensed under the GNU GPL) to control the finished chess robot. The system uses a photosensitive chess board to track the position of the pieces. A stepper motor interface is used to control the robot through a conventional desktop computer. The robot itself (pictured after the break) consists of a 3D workcell with chain drive and a gripper driven by a hobby servo.