Introduction to Robotic Ping Pong
MIT engineers have developed a powerful, lightweight robotic ping pong player that can return shots with high-speed precision. The robot comprises a multijointed robotic arm fixed to one end of a ping pong table, wielding a standard ping pong paddle. With the aid of 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 to precisely hit the ball to a desired location on the table.
How the Robot Works
The robot’s system is made up of a lightweight, high-power robotic arm with four joints, or degrees of freedom, each controlled by an electrical motor. The team added an additional degree of freedom in the wrist to allow for control of a paddle. High-speed motion capture cameras track balls bounced at the robot, and optimal control algorithms predict the speed and paddle orientation the arm should execute to hit an incoming ball with a particular type of swing.
Testing the Robot
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. The team has since tuned the robot’s reaction time and found the arm hits balls faster than existing systems, at velocities of 20 meters per second.
Applications Beyond Ping Pong
The team believes the table tennis tech could be adapted to improve the speed and responsiveness of humanoid robots, particularly for search-and-rescue scenarios, and situations in which a robot would need to quickly react or anticipate. The problems the team is solving, specifically related to intercepting objects 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.
Future Developments
The team is looking to increase the robot’s playing radius so that it can return a wider variety of shots. They envision the setup could be a viable competitor in the growing field of smart robotic training systems. The robot’s limited mobility and reach are currently being addressed by plans 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.
Conclusion
The development of this robotic ping pong player is a significant step forward in the field of robotics, with potential applications beyond the game of ping pong. The team’s work on improving the speed and responsiveness of humanoid robots could lead to breakthroughs in search-and-rescue scenarios and other situations where quick reaction times are crucial.
