German Robot Learns How to Play Ping-Pong [VIDEO]

Unlike in Hollywood Sci-Fi thrillers, humans and robots have only really battled in games like chess and Jeopardy. Now the struggle moves to the Ping-Pong table. Researchers have taught a robot how to play table tennis, proving once again that robots may be able to learn how to imitate humans by observing them perform actions and then mimicking them.

Katharina Muelling and other scientists at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany mounted a robotic arm equipped with a camera to the ceiling. Then, to train it, Muelling guided the arm through a series of shots. After some practice, the robot was left on its own to play against a human playe…
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