The Axiomatic Design of Chessmate: A Chess-playing Robot

Successfully completing a project on time is often a difficult task especially when the project is not well defined. This paper demonstrates the application of Axiomatic Design principles to shape and direct a multi-disciplinary project from initial conception to the final tested product. This product is Chessmate: a small robot which plays chess on a physical board. This robot is intended as a telepresence mechanism or for players who are physically challenged. Verifiable requirements were developed at the beginning of the project based upon this top level goal. These Functional Requirements ensured that the team focused on the necessary capabilities of the end product even while working on electrical, mechanical, and software elements in parallel. Construction of a design matrix identified sources of coupling that would require additional effort to avoid delays. Coupling was reduced in software by careful Application Programming Interface (API) and abstraction development. Testing parameters were explicitly stated by the requirements enabling regular validation in both software and hardware. The result was a complete chess-playing system from start to finish in 12 weeks.