TechMIT unveils table tennis playing robot with 88% accuracy, 42 mph shot speed

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a table tennis-playing robot that boasts 88% accuracy and a 42 mph (about 68 km/h) shot speed.

 

 

The robot that demonstrates impressive performance is able to return shots with various spins with an 88% success rate, which is comparable to that of human players.

 

MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created the robot, which tracks the ball and reacts in real time using sophisticated motion planning, computer vision, and machine learning.

The strike speed of the robot, which is intended to not only test human players but also help with training by varying shot types and difficulty, is faster than any prior table tennis robot and approaches the return speeds of elite human players.

According to the robot’s developers, this system is more than simply a game because they intend to apply it in future robotic training systems and increase the robot’s range.

 

But the technology also has broader implications. “The problems that we’re solving, specifically related to intercepting objects really quickly and precisely, could potentially be useful in scenarios where a robot has to carry out dynamic maneuvers and plan where its end effector will meet an object in real time,” said MIT graduate student David Nguyen.