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Rise of the Ping Pong Robots

Posted by timothy on from the friends-for-the-basement dept.

mikejuk writes with this excerpt: "Meet Wu and Kong — the latest in ping pong playing robots. They may not achieve exciting matches at the moment, but the fact that they can do the job at all is an indication of how fast things are moving. Unlike many other game-playing robots these two players are humanoid and are kitted out in old style Chinese jackets. They are about 1.6 meters tall and weigh in at 55 kilos. They track the ball with video cameras situated in their heads and then play a variety of strokes. They were developed by Zhejiang University and are currently turning up on the Chinese media as a novelty item. ... The current record for a rally is 144 rounds between robots. Humans can compete against them, but the robots lack the variety of shots that makes table tennis a game of strategy as well as accuracy."

14 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. FYI by Nyall · · Score: 3, Informative

    The first video has some text saying that the current robot vs robot record is 176 strokes.

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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
  2. Wireless Joe Jackson! by Nursie · · Score: 4, Funny

    there was a blern-hitting machine!

    1. Re:Wireless Joe Jackson! by CustooFintel · · Score: 2

      Exactly! He was a machine designed to hit blerns!

  3. the secret is by martas · · Score: 2

    there's actually a really skinny guy hiding in the "robot". but seriously, it's quite impressive -- might not seem like much now, but the thing about robotics is that getting the basics is the hardest part; once you have that, getting fancy is relatively easy.

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    weinersmith
    1. Re:the secret is by msobkow · · Score: 2

      Back in the early '80s, I remember being impressed by a pogo-stick hopping robot just because it could keep it's balance. That's amazing progress for 30 years when you think about it.

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      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  4. Terminal man by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Brings to mind a scene in Michael Crichton's book Terminal Man where somebody is developing a ping pong playing robot (IIRC called HAPP (Hopelessly Articlated PingPong Player)) and the point is made that the ability to accurately deflect a table tennis ball could have all kinds of defense applications.

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    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:Terminal man by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      The only difference between ping pong balls and bullets is scale. If you got this thing good enough to pick out and detect bullets it'd be like any Hollywood action movie.

  5. gonna need a faster camera by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    before the robot can compete with human players... 30 fps aint gonna be enough if somebody were to smash the ball hard.

    1. Re:gonna need a faster camera by Zouden · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's why these robots have 120fps cameras.

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      "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  6. What does it look like when it fails? by The+New+Andy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wish the videos showed what happened when it stuffed up. This is impressive, but seeing how far you can push it before it fails would let me know the upper bound of its impressiveness :-).

    1. Re:What does it look like when it fails? by Ihmhi · · Score: 2

      It's a Chinese robot, they aren't allowed to show it failing. The only way you'd see this robot fail is if it was somehow involved in a disaster that killed a hundred people.

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      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  7. oblig by gyepi · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new ping pong overlords!

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    Attitudes make the difference between Space and Time: we want to MAX our temporal, and MIN our spatial extension.
  8. Exciting by vagabond_gr · · Score: 2

    Now you only need to fill the arena with a bunch of robot-fans programmed to act excited.

  9. Another channel of feedback: Sound. by bubulubugoth · · Score: 2

    Do they only manage optical tracking? If you ask any sport practitioner, not only the vision is used, also sound feedback is very important, you can determine the strength, even the effect with a given sound...

    I wonder if they are including it already...

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    Â_Â