Watch A Robot Take On A Ping-Pong Champ In This Epic Matchup
A one-armed robot plays a friendly game of ping-pong against German table tennis champ Timo Boll. So who won, man or machine?
In an epic battle of man-versus-machine ping-pong, man ultimately prevails, but the showdown highlights advances in developing human-like qualities in robots.
To celebrate the opening of a Shanghai factory, German robotics company Kuka pitted its one-armed ping-pong-playing robot against German table tennis champ Timo Boll.
Easing concerns about robot overlords, Boll wins narrowly, 11-9.
Ping-pong has become a popular way to demonstrate agility and rapid reflexes in robots. (And humans, too.) Vietnamese robotics company TOSY debuted a humanoid ping-pong-playing robot in 2007 and a German industrial mechanic recently showed off UHTTR-1, another one-armed robot that also excels in the sport.
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A glitch.. Timo boll served first... the score was 1-0 for KUKA.. KUKA served the second point :P
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Wait wait wait… the #1 is a white guy?
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I don't know a lot about ping pong, but if Boll was on serve at the beginning, why did the robot get a point when Boll lost the first volley?
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you don't need to server to get points in ping pong
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We use Kuka robots to do 3D Robotic Stitching on Automobile Instrument Panels. The model we use is much bigger than these...
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The fact that the robot won is no achievement at all, considering that the robot has to make no cross body shots allowing it to stand in one place. The human player has to increase his reach through movement because he has to reach across his body to even have a chance at the ball. All robotic shots are therefore from the strong side.
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Did you even watch it?
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Beautifully done and fun to watch (I'm a Timo Boll fan); but in the end it's art-vertising, with no one letting the viewer in on the joke. Boll would not win "narrowly" but would have an easy time, as it seems highly unlikely that a robotic device existing today could accomplish the multitude of spins, blocks, power, trajectories, vision, and judgment of a world-class table tennis player.
It's always an interesting grey zone when promoting a product with obviously fake "super powers" (e.g., Red Bull giving you wings) vs. this case of potentially fooling an audience.
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While this was fake(probably), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdlSvtUInu0
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That was the shittiest video I have seen in a while.
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Outstanding advertisement.
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