GAME-ROBOT prepared for avoidance motion

The objective of this study was to develop a robot which can play game with human. The robot developed is called GAME-ROBOT. GAME-ROBOT is required to make a response which is “amusing” or “interesting” when playing game with human. It means that we cannot neglect such factors as safety and psychological effects on the human being. For GAME-ROBOT, the minimum required functions for playing Othello are shown as follows: 1) a function for detecting piece situations on the game board by image processing; 2) a function to decide the next robot move by the game software; 3) a function for handling a piece through the robot mechanisms; and 4) a function for detecting the human behaviour by external sensors attached to the robot to avoid an unexpected contact of human with the robot