Carrom Origins
Carrom is a table game often compared to billiards and table shuffleboard. The origins of carrom are obscure. India, Burma, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the British have all been credited as possible inventors of the game. However, it has become a very popular game in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas. It has recently grown in popularity in the United States. Clubs and cafes have created their own regular tournaments of carrom. Players of the game often begin at home with family but carry it into their social activities as adults.
The Board and Pieces
The game board can come in different sizes but the standardized size is 29in x 29in. The board is often made of plywood that has been made extremely smooth. Additional powder is added to the surface to aid in the ease of movement of pieces on the board. Thick, wooden, raised edges surround the board to serve as bumpers. There are also four corner pockets. The pieces include a striker that is three times heavier than the object pieces, black and white object pieces called carrom men, and a red queen piece.
Objective
Carrom is played by flicking the striker with a finger so that it makes contact with one of the nine black or white object pieces and is thus propelled into one of the four corner pockets thereby collecting points. The goal is to sink your nine pieces plus the queen in the pockets first. Different standards and rules exist in different areas.
Players
Two, three, or four people can play carrom.
cBot with A.I.
The cBot was designed to serve as an additional player for carrom. Considering carrom can be played with four people as teams of two, it is often the desired number and style of play over two or three players. With the addition of artificial intelligence, cBot can make it possible to play as teams and thus make a more interesting and fun game of carrom when there are only three players present. Or if there is a single player, he or she can play the cBot one on one.
The cBot Project
Taking into account the amount of time and money our group, the Playground Bullies, was allowed, it was not feasible for us to actually build the cBot with artificial intelligence implemented. So we did the next best thing! We completed all the necessary steps that one would take if he or she were to build the cBot with artificial intelligence but then stopped at the step prior to adding the A.I. We built the necessary components with motors, the aid of programming, and acrylic to show that a fully automated cBot is possible.
The Device
The current device still requires some human interaction. The main function that the cBot takes place of is the aiming and flicking of the striker. We built a device that sits on one of the four raised up edges of the carrom board and has multiple moving parts that can span the entire length of the board plus additional rotation and a flicker that propels the striker across the board. There are four main mechanisms that make this possible. There is transverse movement that is achieved with a belt and pulley system, aiming that is achieved using a stepper motor, raising and lowering using a servo, and shooting using a solenoid as an electromagnet.
Using the cBot
If a player were to use the cBot to play carrom there are 3 knobs and 2 buttons to control the device. The first knob can be rotated left or right to control the side movement of the cBot. The cBot will then move to the left or right side of the board. The second knob can be rotated to control the carriage of the cBot. The carriage is the bottom section of the cBot that holds the striker and is connected to the rest of the device by the servo and a motor. The carriage will rotate to align with the intended carrom men piece. The third knob can be rotated to control the power level of the shooting. Depending on how close or far the carrom men piece is from the striker, a person may want to flick the striker softly or with a lot of force. Rotating this knob moves the solenoid a certain distance back from the striker to imitate the control of flicking with a finger. The first button engages the flicker and when the device is ready to shoot a light will illuminate. The red button can then be pressed to shoot the striker and propel it across the board to hit the carrom men piece.
Carrom is a table game often compared to billiards and table shuffleboard. The origins of carrom are obscure. India, Burma, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the British have all been credited as possible inventors of the game. However, it has become a very popular game in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas. It has recently grown in popularity in the United States. Clubs and cafes have created their own regular tournaments of carrom. Players of the game often begin at home with family but carry it into their social activities as adults.
The Board and Pieces
The game board can come in different sizes but the standardized size is 29in x 29in. The board is often made of plywood that has been made extremely smooth. Additional powder is added to the surface to aid in the ease of movement of pieces on the board. Thick, wooden, raised edges surround the board to serve as bumpers. There are also four corner pockets. The pieces include a striker that is three times heavier than the object pieces, black and white object pieces called carrom men, and a red queen piece.
Objective
Carrom is played by flicking the striker with a finger so that it makes contact with one of the nine black or white object pieces and is thus propelled into one of the four corner pockets thereby collecting points. The goal is to sink your nine pieces plus the queen in the pockets first. Different standards and rules exist in different areas.
Players
Two, three, or four people can play carrom.
cBot with A.I.
The cBot was designed to serve as an additional player for carrom. Considering carrom can be played with four people as teams of two, it is often the desired number and style of play over two or three players. With the addition of artificial intelligence, cBot can make it possible to play as teams and thus make a more interesting and fun game of carrom when there are only three players present. Or if there is a single player, he or she can play the cBot one on one.
The cBot Project
Taking into account the amount of time and money our group, the Playground Bullies, was allowed, it was not feasible for us to actually build the cBot with artificial intelligence implemented. So we did the next best thing! We completed all the necessary steps that one would take if he or she were to build the cBot with artificial intelligence but then stopped at the step prior to adding the A.I. We built the necessary components with motors, the aid of programming, and acrylic to show that a fully automated cBot is possible.
The Device
The current device still requires some human interaction. The main function that the cBot takes place of is the aiming and flicking of the striker. We built a device that sits on one of the four raised up edges of the carrom board and has multiple moving parts that can span the entire length of the board plus additional rotation and a flicker that propels the striker across the board. There are four main mechanisms that make this possible. There is transverse movement that is achieved with a belt and pulley system, aiming that is achieved using a stepper motor, raising and lowering using a servo, and shooting using a solenoid as an electromagnet.
Using the cBot
If a player were to use the cBot to play carrom there are 3 knobs and 2 buttons to control the device. The first knob can be rotated left or right to control the side movement of the cBot. The cBot will then move to the left or right side of the board. The second knob can be rotated to control the carriage of the cBot. The carriage is the bottom section of the cBot that holds the striker and is connected to the rest of the device by the servo and a motor. The carriage will rotate to align with the intended carrom men piece. The third knob can be rotated to control the power level of the shooting. Depending on how close or far the carrom men piece is from the striker, a person may want to flick the striker softly or with a lot of force. Rotating this knob moves the solenoid a certain distance back from the striker to imitate the control of flicking with a finger. The first button engages the flicker and when the device is ready to shoot a light will illuminate. The red button can then be pressed to shoot the striker and propel it across the board to hit the carrom men piece.