Students and professors from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China have built a badminton-playing robot that is probably more skillful than most.
Equipped with high-definition cameras that capture images which are processed by an external computer, the machine called the “Robomintoner” is able to fully cover a court and return any type of shot thrown at it, reported China Central Television.
The fully-automated player calculates the trajectory of an opponent’s shot by tracking its movement and direction. It boasts an 80 percent success rate when returning a shot and navigates independently with a maximum speed of four meters per second.
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The robot, which uses two mounted rackets, is not built for tough competitive play. While it is able to return a shot normally, as an average player would, its inability to powerfully do a smash return will not win it matches against a real player.
Players wanting to improve their game, however, will highly benefit from “Robomintoner” as it is set to be sold commercially as a badminton training partner in China.
The skillful robot was able to test its capabilities with badminton champion Dong Jiong and Chinese premier Li Keqiang.
“We were required to create a robot that could play a doubles badminton match. We were the only team who made this robot fully automated,” said Huang Xi, one of the student creators of the badminton-playing robot. “We are in the business of making clever devices. We might as well make it fully intelligent.”
