WHO
MIT engineers have developed a ping-pong-playing robot that quickly estimates the speed and trajectory of an incoming ball and precisely hits it with precision.
WHAT
MIT engineers are getting in on the robotic ping pong game with a powerful, lightweight design that returns shots with high-speed precision. The new table tennis bot comprises a multijointed robotic arm that is fixed to one end of a ping pong table and wields a standard ping pong paddle. Aided by several high-speed cameras and a high-bandwidth predictive control system, the robot quickly estimates the speed and trajectory of an incoming ball and executes one of several swing types — loop, drive, or chop — to precisely hit the ball to a desired location on the table with various types of spin. In tests, the engineers threw 150 balls at the robot, one after the other, from across the ping pong table. The bot successfully returned the balls with a hit rate of about 88 percent across all three swing types. The robot’s strike speed approaches the top return speeds of human players and is faster than that of other robotic table tennis designs. Now, the team is looking to increase the robot’s playing radius so that it can return a wider variety of shots. Then, they envision the setup could be a viable competitor in the growing field of smart robotic training systems.
WHERE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
WHY
In addition to training future players, the technology could expand the capabilities of other humanoid robots, such as for search and rescue.
WHEN
In the future, the engineers plan to rig the bot on a gantry or wheeled platform, enabling it to cover more of the table and return a wider variety of shots.
For more information, contact Abby Abazorius at
