For the final project in my embedded systems class, I’ve decided to build a voice controlled chess robot. I’ve got three other people working with me now so it should be manageable (or, it turns out to be a really easy project and we coast for the rest of the semester).

Just off the top of my head, here’s what we have to get done:

– find a voice recognition engine. For this we might use a EasyVR module, or Microsoft’s Speech SDK. I think EasyVR has to be trained, and I’d really like it to be independent of speaker, so that anybody can sit down and dictate.

– use the mbed to control motors that move a pick-and-place machine. Luckily mbed’s huge support will make this easy, hopefully. Encoder and motor libraries already exist, so I’ll be taking advantage of that.

– build the chassis for the pick-and-place machine.

Stay updated for progress during the next month!