54 INTERNATIONNAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING VOL.5, NO.1 2012

Snake and Ladder Game for Enjoyable HumanRelaxation Using A Wireless Small Robot

Adisorn Leelasantitham 1 ,

ABSTRACT

This paper presents snake and ladder game for en-joyable human relaxation using a wireless small robotutilized. This small robot consists of RF wireless,infrared sensors, servo motors and a microcontrollerwhich is a main part for controlling the entire robot;whilst, a computer generates the random data of anumber using a dice program and transmits it to thesmall robot through the RF wireless. Then, the robotwalks on a board of snake and ladder game with fol-lowing such the data number. There are three in-frared sensors in the small robot for conducting it-self on the game board. Overall results of the robotperformances can be summarized as follows. 1) Forthis experiment using 25 times for testing the robotgame, there are 23 and 2 times for finishing and non-completing, respectively, the snake and ladder game.2) The range of distances for a connection betweenthe robot and computer is approximately 5-10 m. 3)The range of length for detecting the black line usinginfrared sensors is approximately 1-1.5 cm. 4) Theperiod time of usage in this robot is approximately4-5 hours. There are 50 people corresponding to testand survey this game for measuring a rate of satisfac-tion. The tested and surveyed result shows that therate of satisfaction is more than 80% of which theycan enjoy and relax it. In addition, this game maybe applicable for curing the human health such as atreatment of neurosis etc.

Keywords: wireless small robot; snake and laddergame; dice; relaxation; enjoyable

1. INTRODUCTION

Generally, it is easy to play snake and ladder gamewhich is a popular game for entertainment and relax-ation especially in children and youth. This game canbe easily played through the use of a game board anda dice. Player must throw the dice for walking thenumber steps from dices resulting on the board usinga cowry. However, it is still to bore for playing onemore game because the player will move the cowryby himself in every time. Nowadays, computers andnetwork have a more role of daily works in our life

Manuscript received on August 1, 2012 ; revised on October5, 2012.1 The author is with Technology of Information System Man-

agement Program, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University,25/25 Puttamonthon Sai. 4, Salaya, Nakorn Pathom 73170,Thailand, E-mail: adisorn.lee@mahidol.ac.th

such as email, internet etc. As this result, the snakeand ladder game is applied for a game online; how-ever, the player cannot move the cowry and the gamealso is not realistic. If a robot can be applied forthis game, then it will be a newly realistic game forthe entertainment and relaxation. In addition, therehave been reported for a health care through the useof game entertainment [1-2].

There are many research papers which have pre-sented and utilized wireless small robots for manyapplications such as cell tissue, surgery, surveillance,wireless network etc. They can be categorized fortwo groups of the wireless robots as miniature andsmall sizes. The first group is the miniature sizes e.g.to bring the instruments to the samples in the formof miniature wireless instrumented robots called theNanoWalkers for revolutionizing the way drug, bio-logical, material discovery, and characterization willbe performed in the future [3], to make automatedmanipulation of micrometer-scaled objects possibleby robots with nanometer precision equipped withon-board electronics, sensors and wireless power sup-ply [4], to increase more robots used for various med-ical purposes i.e. from wired to wireless: a miniaturerobot for intestinal inspection [5], and to focus on de-veloping miniature in vivo robots to assist surgeonsduring laparoscopic surgery by providing an enhancedfield of view from multiple angles and dexterous ma-nipulators not constrained by the abdominal wall ful-crum effect [6].

The second group is the small sizes such as tele-robotics for exploring and surveying the flat area us-ing wireless network and TCP/IP [7-12], small sub-marine robot for experiments in underwater sensornetworks [13], a miniature robotic system (”scout”)useful for reconnaissance and surveillance missions[14], the development of small hopping robots thatare be useful for many tasks in unknown, ruggedterrain, and are especially suited to celestial explo-ration in small gravity environments [15], improvingan existing infrared relative localization/communica-tion module used to find range and bearing betweenrobots in small-scale multi-robot systems [16], highlymobile and robust small quadruped robots [17], smallsoccer robot without intelligence system [18], an in-frastructure of distributed vision-based system formulti-robot navigation [19], the design and imple-mentation of a mini-size search robot for detectionof hazardous or dangerous materials [20], and biolog-ical inspiration for mechanical design and control ofautonomous walking animal robots [21].

Adisorn Leelasantitham 55

In this paper, snake and ladder game for enjoyablehuman relaxation game is presented through the useof a wireless small robot. This small robot consistsof RF wireless, infrared sensors, servo motors and amicrocontroller which is a main part for controllingthe entire robot; whilst, a computer generates therandom data of a number using a dice program andtransmits it to the small robot through the RF wire-less. Then, the robot walks on a board of snake andladder game with following such the data number.There are three infrared sensors in the small robotfor conducting itself on the game board. There are50 people corresponding to test and survey this gamefor measuring a rate of satisfaction. This game alsomay be applicable for curing the human health suchas a treatment of neurosis etc.

2. PROPOSED SYSTEM

The proposed system of the wireless small robotutilized for the snake and ladder game can be de-scribed as follows.

2.1 Hardware Structure

Figure 1 shows hardware structure for communi-cation between the computer and the wireless smallrobot on the board of snake and ladder game. Thehardware structure consists of a wireless small robotincluding three infrared sensors, a board of snakeand ladder game, radio frequency (RF) wireless con-nected with a computer. The working process canbe described as follows. The small robot receivesa command data (or conditions) from the computerthrough the use of RF wireless. The command isgenerated from the dice program which is a randomnumber (1,2,3,4,5,6). Then, the robot will move theslot on the board, as will be seen later in Fig. 6,following the random number.

The algorithm of moving the wireless small robotwill be described in Section IIB and three infraredsensors will help it to navigate directions followingthe seven conditions, as shown in Table I. These threesensors are set in the wireless small robot which theywill help it to navigate on the board of snake andladder game. Table I shows status conditions of thethree infrared sensors (left, center and right sensors).It can be seen from Table I that there are seven con-ditions following in the three infrared sensors.

Fig.1:: Hardware structure for communication be-tween the computer and the wireless small robot onthe board of snake and ladder game.

Table 1:: Status conditions of the three infrared sen-sors (left, center and right sensors).

Left Centre RightConditions

Sensor Sensor Sensor

0 0 0 Go straight0 1 0 Go straight0 0 1 Check the right way out0 1 1 Normally turn right1 0 0 Check the left way out1 1 0 Normally turn left1 1 1 Up/Fall the ladder

From Table I, seven conditions can be described asfollows. The first (0,0,0), second (0,1,0), third (0,0,1),fourth (0,1,1), fifth (1,0,0), sixth (1,1,0) and seventh(1,1,1) conditions will go straight, go straight, checkthe right way out, normally turn right, check the leftway out, normally turn left and up/fall the ladder,respectively. Figures 2 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f) and(g) show conditions of seven cases corresponding inTable I for detecting the black line from the threeinfrared sensors for the first (left sensor = 0, centersensor = 0, right sensor = 0), second (0,1,0), third(0,0,1), fourth (0,1,1), fifth (1,0,0), sixth (1,1,0) andseventh (1,1,1) conditions, respectively. Figure 2 (h)shows the value of each sensor (no detection = 0 anddetection = 1).

Figure 3 shows a side view of the wireless smallrobot including RF wireless, microcontroller boardand the three infrared sensors. The RF wireless willreceive and send the data signal to the computer. Themicrocontroller is a processing unit of the wirelesssmall robot which it will control two motor, receivethe signal of three sensors and transmit the data sig-nal to the computer using RF wireless. Circuit dia-gram of the wireless small robot will be described andpresented in Appendix A.

2.2 Software Structure

Figure 4 shows software structure of the wirelesssmall robot utilized for snake and ladder game corre-sponding in Fig. 1. It can be seen from Fig. 4 thatthis robot will start to play the snake and ladder gameusing the dice program which generates the randomnumber i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The robot will move eachstep (following the resulting of random numbers) inthe slots on the board of the snake and ladder game,as will be seen later in Fig. 6. It will detect the lineusing conditional algorithm of seven cases shown inTable I and it will also return the moving status tothe computer. Among its movement, it also will checkthe seven cases of conditional status corresponding toTable I and Fig. 2 such as the upping/falling ladderand not, or the winning game.

If it does not win the game, then the process willreturn to the dice program again for generating therandom number until finishing the winner of the robot

56 INTERNATIONNAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING VOL.5, NO.1 2012

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Fig.2:: Conditions of seven cases corresponding inTable I for detecting the black line from the threeinfrared sensors for (a) first (left sensor = 0, centersensor = 0, right sensor = 0), (b) second (0,1,0), (c)third (0,0,1), (d) fourth (0,1,1), (e) fifth (1,0,0), (f)sixth (1,1,0), (g) seventh (1,1,1) conditions, and (h)the value of each sensor (no detection = 0 and detec-tion = 1).

Fig.3:: A side view of the wireless small robot in-cluding RF wireless, microcontroller board and threeinfrared sensors.

Fig.4:: Software structure of the wireless small robotutilized for snake and ladder game.

on the game. In case of the winner, the robot willmove repeatedly around the circle on the game board,as will be seen later in Fig. 6. Figure 5 shows graphicuser interface (GUI) of the wireless small robot uti-lized for the snake and ladder game. It can be seenfrom Fig.5 that there are three parts of GUI i.e. man-ual, dice and option. The manual mode is used forcontrolling the robot (forward, left, right and back)through the use of the option of manual. The diceprogram dice is used for staring the robot for thesnake and ladder game which presses firstly the op-tion of play.

Adisorn Leelasantitham 57

Fig.5:: Graphic user interface (GUI) of the wirelesssmall robot utilized for controlling the snake and lad-der game.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND FU-TURE WORK

Figure 6 shows a board example of the snake andladder game for testing the robot. It can be seen fromFig. 6 that there are four rows of the dotted line (i.e.Row 1, Row 2, Row 3 and Row 4) on the board whichstarts from bottom line to top line (Win). Thereare three lines of curves and three lines of ladder, asshown in Fig. 6. Figure 7 shows the practical testingof the wireless small robot moving on the board of thesnake and ladder game. Figure 8 shows examples forresulting steps of moving robot on the board of snakeand ladder game. It can be seen from Fig. 8 thatFigs. 8 (a), (b) and (c) show the results of movingrobot (red arrow) from which the dice program gen-erates the random number of 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Figures 8 (d) and (e) show the results of moving robotturning on the curve line and falling from the ladder,respectively.

Table II shows the experimental results for testingthe wireless small robot on the board. It can be seenfrom Table II that there are ten times for testing agame of the moving robot on the board. There are25 times used for testing the robot. The results showthat there are 23 and 2 times for finishing and non-completing, respectively, the snake and ladder game.Two times (8th and 18th) have errors of two rows(Row 2, Row 3) because the robot turns on the curveline. For the range of distances of the connection be-tween the robot and computer, it is approximately 5-10 m. The range of length for detecting the black lineusing infrared sensors is approximately 1-1.5 cm. Theperiod time of usage in this robot is approximately 4-5 hours. There are 25 people corresponding to testand survey this game for measuring a rate of satisfac-tion. The tested and surveyed result shows that therate of satisfaction is more than 80% of which they

Fig.6:: A board example of the snake and laddergame for testing the robot.

Fig.7:: The practical testing of the wireless smallrobot moving on the board of the snake and laddergame.

can enjoy and relax it.From the experiment, the error of moving robot

can be improved by the use of adjusting the speed ofthe robot and sensitivity of detecting three infraredsensors. Therefore, the robot can use to play in thereal game. The future work to develop the wirelesssmall robot for the snake and ladder game will be insuch as adding another robot to play completely aninteractive game between two robots, using a camerato set up on the top on the board for playing the au-tomatic game based on image algorithm, and usingintelligent algorithms for controlling the robot etc.This game can be applied for the health care of peo-ple such as a treatment of neurosis or other relateddisease etc.

58 INTERNATIONNAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING VOL.5, NO.1 2012

Fig.9:: Circuit Diagram.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Fig.8:: Examples for resulting steps of moving roboton the board of snake and ladder game from (a) therandom number of 1, (b) the random number of 2,(c) the random number of 3, (d) turning on the curveline and (e) falling from the ladder.

Table 2:: The experimental results for testing thewireless small robot on the board.

Numbers of TestingRow 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4

(times)

1√ √ √ √

2√ √ √ √

3√ √ √ √

4√ √ √ √

5√ √ √ √

6√ √ √ √

7√ √ √ √

8√

× ×√

9√ √ √ √

10√ √ √ √

11√ √ √ √

12√ √ √ √

13√ √ √ √

14√ √ √ √

15√ √ √ √

16√ √ √ √

17√ √ √ √

18√

× ×√

19√ √ √ √

20√ √ √ √

21√ √ √ √

22√ √ √ √

23√ √ √ √

24√ √ √ √

25√ √ √ √

Note that√

and × are passing and not passing,respectively, of the robot.

4. CONCLUSION

This paper has presented the snake and laddergame for enjoyable human relaxation using the wire-less small robot. The experimental results of therobot performances have been summarized as follows.1) For testing the robot game using 25 times, therewere 23 and 2 times for finishing and non-completing,respectively, the snake and ladder game. 2) The rangeof distances for a connection between the robot andcomputer was approximately 5-10 m. 3) The rangeof length for detecting the black line using infraredsensors was approximately 1-1.5 cm. 4) The period

Adisorn Leelasantitham 59

time of usage in this robot was approximately 4-5hours. There have 50 people corresponding to testand survey this game for measuring a rate of satis-faction. The tested and surveyed result showed thatthe rate of satisfaction was more than 80% of whichthey can enjoy and relax it. In addition, this gamemay be applicable for curing the human health suchas a treatment of neurosis etc.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author is grateful to Mr. Maytee Sinshawarn-wat and Mr. Damrongdech Poompaichit for theiruseful help in this work. The author is also deeplygrateful to the University of the Thai Chamber ofCommerce (UTCC) for the research fund.

6. APPENDIX A

Figure A1 shows the circuit diagram of the wire-less small robot. It can be seen from Fig. A1 thatthe circuit diagram consists of 4 parts as 1) PIC mi-crocontroller, 2) two servo motors, 3) three infraredsensors and 4) RF transceiver module communicatedbetween the wireless small robot and the computerthrough a serial port RS232 using MAX232.

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Adisorn Leelasantitham receivedthe B.Eng. degree in Electronics andTelecommunications and the M.Eng.degree in Electrical Engineering fromKing Mongkut’s University of Technol-ogy Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand, in1997 and 1999, respectively. He receivedhis Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineer-ing from Sirindhorn International Insti-tute of Technology (SIIT), ThammasatUniversity, Thailand, in 2005. He is cur-rently the Assistant Professor in Tech-

nology of Information System Management Program, Facultyof Engineering, Mahidol University, Thailand. His researchinterests include analog circuits, image processing, medicalimages, computer graphics, AI, neural networks, microcon-trollers, embedded systems, robotics and applications of chaossystems.