[CEATEC 2014] We have seen our fair share of robots over here at CEATEC this year, and while some of them are more meant for promotional purposes than being practical, others, like the Den-Oute Kun from Denso, happens to have a decent reason for existing. Heck, it is well worth it to look into the future development of the Den-Oute-Kun further, since this particular robot arm was specially developed for professional shogi matches. Shogi happens to be Japanese chess, otherwise also known as Generals’ Game.
The Den-Oute-Kun was specially developed by Denso Wave Inc., and it is not only a working prototype that can wow the crowd, it definitely has the ability to back up its performance, as the Den-Oute Kun robot arm did participate in shogi matches before against professional shogi players over at the Third Human-Computer Shogi Match. The movement is clean and precise, where it makes use of a special camera as well as a tiny straw-like tool that presumably uses suction to pick up shogi pieces and place them all over the board.
I have to admit this, that to have a robot move pieces in English chess would definitely be overkill since a human assistant can simply see what and where the computer’s next move is and do so on the computer’s behalf. All I can say is, the Den-Oute-Kun’s movement is precise, calculated and cold – just the ingredients required to wear down your opponent.
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