GM Grischuk Takes On Robot!

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Cyberchess
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GM Grischuk Takes On Robot!

Post by Cyberchess »

GM Alexander Grischuk vs. KUKA

:) Watch in HD and enjoy!

John
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Post by pr1uk »

Great find and thank you for posting
King Performance Chess Computer M830
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Post by Cyberchess »

Greetings pr1uk:

I discovered this KUKA blitz match quite by chance while I was searching for street chess scenes. When not busy at the automotive plant, KUKA also plays a mean game of table tennis.

Kind of reminds me of the adversarial robot in the 1987 film “RoboCop”.

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Re: GM Grischuk Takes On Robot!

Post by Larry »

Cyberchess wrote: GM Alexander Grischuk vs. KUKA

:) Watch in HD and enjoy!

John
And loses. I'm wondering which program they used. The commentator
was speaking Russian (I think).
L
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Re: GM Grischuk Takes On Robot!

Post by Cyberchess »

Larry wrote:
Cyberchess wrote: GM Alexander Grischuk vs. KUKA

:) Watch in HD and enjoy!

John
And loses. I'm wondering which program they used. The commentator
was speaking Russian (I think).
L
Good question. I neither speak nor understand much Russian, and have no idea what the announcer was saying to the audience.

A speed-chess oriented human Grandmaster would be able to move --and especially capture-- much faster than the robot, but the advanced A.I. computational hardware with a strong program fares even better at blitz time controls. It would be interesting to see Anand play the robot at blitz in my opinion. He has a reputation as a blitz chess guru amongst GMs, and could likely exploit the machine's slower physical movements.

Rooting For Humanity Regards,
John
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Post by spacious_mind »

You might not believe this but Kuka had their chess robot stored in a warehouse in the U.S. a few years ago gathering dust and apparently forgotten. So when the local account manager told me about this I had tried to convince him to let me have it. He actually did inquire about it, but I guess my interest made them remember what they had so they shortly thereafter moved it to supposedly their Kuka museum.

True story.

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Nick
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Post by ricard60 »

Hi Nick,

Do you have any idea which engine is behind Kuka?
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Post by spacious_mind »

ricard60 wrote:Hi Nick,

Do you have any idea which engine is behind Kuka?
No the man didn't know, it was used in their education/training center which I think was in Atlanta, and then it was left idle for a while in storage. This is about 8-10 years ago. Since the robots ran on some pretty serious hardware I always assumed that it was some strong chess software of the day which their engineers figured out to convert into commands on their robots.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if ABB and Fanuc Robotics amongst others didn't do something similar in their research centers/training centers. All three of these companies were pretty high tech in automating body, paint and assembly work in car plants. Well beyond simple chess computer technology :)

Regards

Nick
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Post by spacious_mind »

You know if you think about it, it probably wasn't that hard for these robotic companies to do this, maybe more like a trick just like Automaton in the 17th/18th century :)

The robot arms get programmed with sensors to precisely go to certain coordinates (the chess pieces probably also have sensors) and their precision in doing this is absolutely precise as they do in manufacturing. At those locations they are programmed to perform the commanded task or tasks and then return to their start position.

So sensors on the board get transmitted to the computer, the computer calculates its chess response and the robot performs the tasks by going to the preprogrammed board coordinates and performs its preprogrammed tasks which are in fact just repeating what it sees on its invisible computer board. Ie.. pick up a piece move it to a location, then drop the piece, then arm go back to start position.

I bet you if you moved the board location the robot arm would not be able to perform its tasks successfully (not back then anyway maybe nowadays with optic sensors). That would be just like drilling a hole a few inches to the right or left instead of the center.

So for this video exhibition that robot was probably calibrated for the exact locations of the board. Then Grischuk comes along and plays it and everything seems like Magic!!

Quite simple really :P (not really!)

Best regards
Nick
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Post by Fernando »

I do understand Russian. The program was written in Russia.
Dunno remember and/or understood well the name the guy said. He talked of lot of things of interest for the public over there, hoopla of all kind, not for people like us. He was cursorily about the specs.
In Russia there are many chess programmers, as you know just going into any site of them dedicated to chess engines
спокойной ночи

Fern
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Post by Cyberchess »

Susee Chess also posted a robot vs. robot game which pits the German made KUKA against the Russian made CHESSka. It would seem that Chesska could have demonstrated an over-the-board win with some better technique due to KUKA's erroneous acceptance of an "isolani". It also seemed to me that CHESSka wasted time with pointless king moves.

What do you think?

CHESSka vs. KUKA
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Post by ricard60 »

spacious_mind wrote:
ricard60 wrote:Hi Nick,

Do you have any idea which engine is behind Kuka?
No the man didn't know, it was used in their education/training center which I think was in Atlanta, and then it was left idle for a while in storage. This is about 8-10 years ago.
Regards

Nick
But i do not think an engine from 8 to 10 years ago can beat Grischuk as it did. Probably is the same Robot but loaded with a newer engine
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Post by spacious_mind »

ricard60 wrote:
spacious_mind wrote:
ricard60 wrote:Hi Nick,

Do you have any idea which engine is behind Kuka?
No the man didn't know, it was used in their education/training center which I think was in Atlanta, and then it was left idle for a while in storage. This is about 8-10 years ago.
Regards

Nick
But i do not think an engine from 8 to 10 years ago can beat Grischuk as it did. Probably is the same Robot but loaded with a newer engine
True could be a new engine, but even 8-10 years ago software beats GM's. :)
Nick
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Post by spacious_mind »

Fernando wrote:I do understand Russian. The program was written in Russia.
Dunno remember and/or understood well the name the guy said. He talked of lot of things of interest for the public over there, hoopla of all kind, not for people like us. He was cursorily about the specs.
In Russia there are many chess programmers, as you know just going into any site of them dedicated to chess engines
спокойной ночи

Fern
Fernando,

It might be in Russia but Kuka is German. Robot companies have compared themselves to chess for years, so it is natural for them to associate themselves with chess. Here for example a small report from ABB (another major German Robotics Company) comparing a process (probably for a paint system by the actuators) to a chess board:

"i) The situation on the chess board is evaluated, ie the state of the
process is measured and assessed.
(ii) Future moves are considered, ie a mathematical algorithm calculates
the optimal sequence of actions.
(iii) The first move of the selected sequence is applied, ie a new
setpoint is sent to the actuators. This sequence is repeated after the
opponent has made his move. An important advantage of such a system
is that the mathematical algorithm can take limits and constraints into
account when deriving the optimal control sequence. Analogously, the
chess player has a restricted area in which to make his moves (the board)
and has a limited range of moves (depending on the chessmen)"

They are not concerned about a chess program, they are all concerned about mimicking human hand processes for production environments. For them the fun is showing off the abilities of the robot, so just like the Turk it's meant to be a wow factor for exhibitions.

It looks like the Germans are making major business inroads in Russia, hence the Chess robot has come back to life again. After all every one in Russia knows and plays chess :)

Best regards,
Nick
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Post by Fernando »

spacious_mind wrote:
Fernando wrote:I do understand Russian. The program was written in Russia.
Dunno remember and/or understood well the name the guy said. He talked of lot of things of interest for the public over there, hoopla of all kind, not for people like us. He was cursorily about the specs.
In Russia there are many chess programmers, as you know just going into any site of them dedicated to chess engines
спокойной ночи

Fern
Fernando,

It might be in Russia but Kuka is German. Robot companies have compared themselves to chess for years, so it is natural for them to associate themselves with chess. Here for example a small report from ABB (another major German Robotics Company) comparing a process (probably for a paint system by the actuators) to a chess board:

"i) The situation on the chess board is evaluated, ie the state of the
process is measured and assessed.
(ii) Future moves are considered, ie a mathematical algorithm calculates
the optimal sequence of actions.
(iii) The first move of the selected sequence is applied, ie a new
setpoint is sent to the actuators. This sequence is repeated after the
opponent has made his move. An important advantage of such a system
is that the mathematical algorithm can take limits and constraints into
account when deriving the optimal control sequence. Analogously, the
chess player has a restricted area in which to make his moves (the board)
and has a limited range of moves (depending on the chessmen)"

They are not concerned about a chess program, they are all concerned about mimicking human hand processes for production environments. For them the fun is showing off the abilities of the robot, so just like the Turk it's meant to be a wow factor for exhibitions.

It looks like the Germans are making major business inroads in Russia, hence the Chess robot has come back to life again. After all every one in Russia knows and plays chess :)

Best regards,
The robot is german, the chess engine is russian. that is what I understood.
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