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2025 Hardware · Robotics

Chess-Playing Cobot

Programmed a collaborative robot arm to physically play chess against a human opponent. The system integrates computer vision for live board state detection, motion planning for safe piece manipulation, and real-time communication with a custom chess AI engine.

Collaborative robot Computer vision Path planning ROS Python Human-robot interaction

Overview

Describe the project context — what cobot platform did you use, what was the goal, and what made this technically interesting? Explain how the physical and software sides came together.

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Add cobot photo
e.g. cobot-chess-board.jpg
Add vision system / setup photo
e.g. cobot-vision.jpg

Cobot arm playing chess — [Add caption]

Computer vision pipeline

Describe how the board state was detected — camera setup, what library or approach you used (OpenCV, etc.), how pieces were identified and tracked, and what made board detection challenging (lighting, piece occlusion, etc.).

Motion planning & execution

Describe how move commands from the chess engine were converted into robot trajectories. How did you handle piece pickup, placement, and capture? What safety considerations were needed for operating around a human player?

Robot platform
Add cobot model
Framework
ROS
Vision library
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Languages
Python / C++
AI interface
Custom chess engine
End effector
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Integration with chess AI

Describe the interface between the cobot controller and the chess AI engine. How did the two systems communicate? What happened when the human made a move — how did the system detect it and trigger the AI response?

See also: Chess AI Engine project →

Add system demo photo or diagram
e.g. cobot-demo.jpg

Full system in operation — human vs. cobot


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