Usage

Usage

Before starting a game with the arm, make sure you have completed the steps given on the assembly page and the software setup page.

Starting A Game

Step 1 - Connect Arduino
Connect your Arduino to your computer.

Step 2 - Position Arm Place your arm across the table from you. Make sure that you place the arm such that the axis of the motor that rotates the entire arm from its base is kept at the same distance - armX and armY - that you measured in step 2 of software setup under the Arduino IDE section.

Step 3 - Run Python Code Start a terminal session in the root directory of this project. Rememer to activate the virtual environment you created in step 4 of software setup under the Python Setup section.

Start the game by running the engine/play.py file -

python engine/play.py -c arduinoPort

Replace arduinoPort with the name of the port you have connected your Arduino to. For windows, this port is usually named COMx, where x is a number. For Linux/MacOS, this port is usually named /dev/ttyUSBx, where x is a number.

For a complete description of the options available to you when running this script, see the play.py doc. You can also run

python engine/play.py --help

Script Options

The Python file engine/play.py is used to start a game with the arm. You have the following options you can pass the script to customize behaviour -

Option	Type	Default	Required	Description
-c, --port	str	not set	Yes	Set the port name that the Arduino is connected to
-e, --engine	str	"default"	No	The chess engine to use to find moves. Can be "default" for using chessengine, or "stockfish" for using Stockfish.
-d, --depth	int	4	No	Set the search depth. Can be an integer between 1 and 15 (inclusive). The recommended search depth while using the default engine is <= 5. This setting does not apply when using Stockfish.
-p, --path	str	"stockfish/stockfish.exe"	No	Set the path to the Stockfish executable.
-b, --baud-rate	int	9600	No	Set the baud rate for communication with the Arduino. You will only need to change this option if you modify the baud rate in the controller/controller.ino sketch.
-v, --verbose	bool	False	No	Print verbose debugging output to stdout.
-f, --feedback	str	"auto"	No	Describes how the opponent’s move is communicated to the engine. If "auto", the microcontroller is expected to detect and communicate the move made by the opponent (via the serial port). If "manual", the move made by the opponent needs to be entered into the terminal.

You can also pass the --help flag to the script to print this information.