1. Robotics csi445 Final Project:
Training the AIBO to
Play Tic-Tac-Toe
Overview Presentation : Monday March 28th 2005

2. The Team Gavin Hogan - gh914572@albany.edu
Dipo Ramli -
Vikki Kanchakouskaya -
Fang Yu –

3. The Idea Based upon a suggestion from Shawn Turner.
We will program our AIBO to play TicTacToe. This presents interesting challenges when compared to programming a general purpose computer. The AIBO will be trained to play TicTacToe in the physical world against a human player and/or a second AIBO.
The normal rules of TicTacToe shall apply. It shall be a two player game with a physical board; the players will take turns. The AIBO will identify his move by sitting down on the square then barking, the AIBO will also be able to realize when he has won or lost.

4. Key Objectives
Teaching the AIBO to make decisions based on current layout of the game
Designing an effective game environment with a RECOGNIZABLE game board and player markers.
Training the AIBO to identify the squares and then move to the square he wants.
Training the AIBO to identify the player markers and make decisions based upon their positions.

5. Development Sequence Stage 1 (Weeks 1 and 2)
Part A. Designing the Game Environment
Designing and building a board and game pieces. Involves careful choice of colors, board size, and markers that can be easily identified. The better the design is the easier it shall be to implement recognition and game play.
Part B. Implementing the TicTacToe algorithm on the AIBO:
We are going to make the game playable through console, before moving forward. Once we are sure the AIBO understands the game, we can move on to further tasks.

6. Development Sequence Stage 2 (Weeks 3 and 4)
Part A. Training the AIBO to recognize the squares and the markers on the board:
To implement this we may need more processing power than the AIBO has onboard, if so we will make use of the Galaxy Hub communication system to off site processing.
Part B. Training the AIBO to physically select particular squares
This task will require a combination of motion and recognition processes. When playing the game the dog must be able to move to the square he has selected the sit down on it.

7. Development Sequence Stage 3 (Weeks 4 and 5)
Bring all parts together, testing and troubleshooting to prepare AIBO for challenging the visitors to the RoboShow.
The AIBO must be ready to contend with visitors who have no special understanding of how the AIBO plays. The player should have no need to touch the AIBO or a computer to compete.
Total Time Needed: 5 weeks

8. Your Thoughts and Ideas
We are open to your ideas for the following points:
Design and recognition of the board, available squares and board markers.
Visual locating of the desired square. (This may present some difficulty, as the squares may look different as the AIBO approaches)
Anything you think we have overlooked.
Thank You.