​Check out our code!​

WITNESS the first-ever hand-built, wooden, robotic, 15-foot-tall, Artificial Intelligence Connect 4 game. Using AI software we wrote ourselves, MARVIN developed an unbeatable strategy by analyzing thousands of games.

He holds a world record! Can you beat him?

​OUR INSPIRATION:
We wanted to explore artificial intelligence and robotics in a fun, interactive game experience.

THE PROCESS:
For about a year, we spent our weekends in the garage building MARVIN's components, and at the beginning of the summer we constructed him for the first time. After months of testing and troubleshooting we displayed him at The New York City World Maker Faire, the maker movement's flagship event.

GAME-PLAY:
1. Using a 4 foot pole, a human player places an 11 inch diameter colored game disk at the top of the column of their choosing. The disk placement is recorded by optical sensors that transmit its location to an Arduino.

2. The Arduino records the move and sends a "get request" to a local server.

3. This server runs artificial intelligence code (written by us) to determine the best move and reports MARVIN's decision back to the Arduino.

4. The Arduino turns on an "elevator" which brings a disk from the ground to the top of the board. Utilizing car door actuators and gravity, the disk is directed down a ramp and into the column of MARVIN's choosing.

5. Game-play then returns to the human player.
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6. The first player to line up four of their disks in a row wins.

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How does MARVIN work?
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Looking at the crowd through Marvin

WORLD MAKER FAIRE NY 2018:
​On September 22 and 23 MARVIN was displayed at the New York Hall of Science as part of the "Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth". During setup, we encountered some fundamental issues related to our use of infrared sensors in the outdoors (they don't work). However, no problem is too large when you have access to the brainstorming power of hundreds of makers with great ideas. Together, we came up with a few creative hacks (thanks Mike from Hackaday) that fixed our problem. Once Marvin was up and running, he started winning: finishing the weekend with a winning percentage of 78% (better than any Major League Baseball season record in history). Kids and adults alike flocked from around the fair to come play him and although usually defeated, they walked away happy. Marvin became a huge crowd pleaser and received four Editors Choice awards. 
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FEATURES IN THE MEDIA:
At the Maker Faire, we encountered a number of journalists who were excited to share our project with the internet. We were featured in Popular Science's Maker Faire preview, an arcticle on Hackaday, a live interview from Make:, and posts on various social media platforms. Check out these features to learn what others think about Marvin.

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