A ROS package to enable the easy integration of the GNU chess engine into your robotic applications.

Nearing completion. (About time!) I need to add:

• rqt_chess visualizer
• refine the ROS messages and services.

MIT

The chess_engine meta-package provides a set of libraries, headers, and ROS nodes to facilitate the developemnt of robotic chess playing algorithms. The end goal? Make a robotic manipulator that autonomously competes against either a human or robot opponent, playing on a physical board with physical pieces.

To that end, the developers of the perfect robotic chess playing machine must consider a (sub)set of the following problem domains:

• Locate and orient the chess board.
• Locate and recognize the chess pieces on or off the board.
• Apply kinodynamic algorithms to move, grasp, and release any chess piece.
• If playing on the same board with a human/robot competitor, behave with good chess etiquete. (Don't try to move when someone's hand is hovering over the board, equivocating over their move!)
• Reset the physical game from the current board state and off-board captured pieces.
• Train the robot to recognize a new board motif with chess pieces of a new style and color.
• Add synthesized voice to distract your opponent's concentration and entertain your judges.
• Define victory moves to be a very bad winner.

The chess_engine package supports the full game of chess:

• Basic moves
• Piece capture
• Castling
• Pawn promotion
• En passant
• Check
• End of game (checkmate/draw/resign)

If you are looking to develop a Deeper Blue, this repo will not avail. You must trek to the distant Himalayas to reach your Chess Nirvana. Good luck.

• Ubuntu 16.04 + ROS kinetic or Ubuntu 14.04 + ROS indigo
• GNU Chess 6.x
• Qt 5.x