A research team from Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, USA, has developed a robot that can play tennis. “ESTHER” is his name, which is short for “Eexperimental Sport Tennis wHEchair Robot” and at the same time a tribute to wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer. But the robot does not play as well as the Dutch one:
It took about two years to develop the robot from scratch. The robot is mounted on a special tennis wheelchair and is powered by two motors. It reaches up to ten meters per second. A robot on two legs is not yet possible with the current state of technology – an Atlas robot, for example, would probably be too heavy and destroy space.
System of cameras and math
The robot works with a system of cameras, triangulation and trajectory calculation. So he knows where to go and where and when to intercept the ball and with what force to hit back. At first he could only do that with ball machines, but now he can also hit balls from real people. Good rallies don’t work yet.
The goal is also that the robot can eventually serve as a training partner or opponent for tennis players in the future.
(lzo)
sources: Georgia Tech and Core Robotics Lab
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Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
