Image: David Nguyen, Kendrick Cancio and Sangbae Kim (with video)
"Building robots to play ping pong is a challenge that researchers have taken up since the 1980s. The problem requires a unique combination of technologies, including high-speed machine vision, fast and nimble motors and actuators, precise manipulator control, and accurate, real-time prediction, as well as higher-level planning of game strategy."
“If you think of the spectrum of control problems in robotics, we have on one end manipulation, which is usually slow and very precise, such as picking up an object and making sure you’re grasping it well. On the other end, you have locomotion, which is about being dynamic and adapting to perturbations in your system,” Nguyen explains. “Ping pong sits in between those. You’re still doing manipulation, in that you have to be precise in hitting the ball, but you have to hit it within 300 milliseconds. So, it balances similar problems of dynamic locomotion and precise manipulation.”
"Building robots to play ping pong is a challenge that researchers have taken up since the 1980s. The problem requires a unique combination of technologies, including high-speed machine vision, fast and nimble motors and actuators, precise manipulator control, and accurate, real-time prediction, as well as higher-level planning of game strategy."
“If you think of the spectrum of control problems in robotics, we have on one end manipulation, which is usually slow and very precise, such as picking up an object and making sure you’re grasping it well. On the other end, you have locomotion, which is about being dynamic and adapting to perturbations in your system,” Nguyen explains. “Ping pong sits in between those. You’re still doing manipulation, in that you have to be precise in hitting the ball, but you have to hit it within 300 milliseconds. So, it balances similar problems of dynamic locomotion and precise manipulation.”
