(^48) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
The pieces are brightly coloured
to aid identification in the camera
view using OpenCV algorithms
The arm lowers a beam with
an electromagnet to pick up
pieces by their metallic tops
Made from Acrobotics, the robotic
arm can move freely horizontally
while maintaining a fixed height
and I was always fascinated by it,”
Joey tells us. “A couple years ago
I read The Turk: The Life and Times
of the Famous Eighteenth-Century
Chess-Playing Machine by Tom
Standage, and loved it. After
spending time learning computer
vision and machine learning last
year, I began looking for a project
that would allow me to use what I
had learnt. I made the connection
and decided it would be a fun and
challenging project.”
Joey says the hardware was the
hardest part of the project. “I am
a software engineer, and building
Projects SHOWCASE
The amazing chess-playing robot
with a Raspberry Pi hidden inside
The Turk takes
20–40 seconds
to make a move
It makes use of
the Stockfish
chess engine
The chessboard
is spray-painted
onto the table
Three 100 W
LED floodlights
illuminate
the board
A daemon
process on the
Pi handles all
the software
Quick
Facts
RASPBERRY
TURK
JOEY MEYER
Joey is an experienced software
engineer with an extensive background
building iOS apps, and a deep
understanding of the fundamental
concepts in machine learning.
raspberryturk.com
he chess player ponders
the next move. Suddenly, a
mechanical arm whirs into
action, moves over the board, lowers
an electromagnet, and picks up a
piece... Checkmate! Joey Meyer’s
Raspberry Turk (raspberryturk.com)
is an ingenious chess-playing robot
that was inspired by the eighteenth-
century ‘Mechanical Turk’. While
the latter machine had a human
player concealed inside to determine
its moves, the Raspberry Turk uses
a Raspberry Pi 3 as its brain.
“My co-worker introduced me
to the 18th century Turk years ago
The gripper mechanism works by
activating an electromagnet at the
end of a vertically moving beam
T