Guinness World Records has recognized Forpheus as the “first robot table tennis tutor”. The machine, which holds a ping pong paddle, can not only play against a human, but teach them as well. How? It taps artificial intelligence to determine the ability of its opponent, while using two vision sensors to keep a robotic eye on the ball, as well as a movement sensor that focuses on the human player’s movement. Cameras located over the table keep track of the ball’s position at a staggering rate of 80-times per second.Continue reading for another video and more information.
“Omron’s mission is a future where humans and machines harmonise together. So to achieve this we produced a robot that can play table tennis. At the moment it is a human who teaches a robot how to behave or teach, but in the next 20 years it may be possible that a robot teaches a robot or a robot develops a robot,” said Tako Oya, the lead developer of the project at Omron Corporation.
