Game, set, match, robots?
Tennis aficionados looking for a hitting partner or coach now have options through the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots. A handful of devices are either in development or about to hit the market.
One model creating plenty of buzz is PongBot, which claims to be serving up what it calls the world’s smartest AI-powered tennis robot/instructor.
The PongBot Pace S Pro, which resembles a tennis ball serving machine, uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and smart sensors trained on more than 100,000 matches to simulate match conditions by delivering balls with different spins, speeds and locations.
Through the combination of AI, smart sensors and adaptive training modes, the robot gives solo tennis players a hitting partner who also happens to understand their game and serves as a personal coach. The bot works with smart devices like intelligent rackets and syncs performance data with the Apple Watch.
Indeed, inventors of PongBot Pace S Pro designed it with the idea of creating a tireless personal tennis coach who teaches to the skill level of the student and is always available. The contraption holds 150 balls that it can serve up to 80 mph with varying spins, reaching 60 rotations per second. PongBot’s battery lasts as long as eight hours.
The robot literally has a mind of its own to read its human partner’s court position and analyze their performance. Both sets of knowledge lets the machine adjust ball speed and spin to simulate a real match.
PongBot started on Kickstarter with a goal of just $10,000 but soon received backing by Qualcomm Inc. Two models of the machine, the Pace S ($699) and Pro ($899), are scheduled to ship this month. (Tennis ball machines range anywhere from $339 to $2,299 on various retail sites. Tennis lessons aren’t cheap, either.)
A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has developed E.S.T.H.E.R. (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot Fully Autonomous), a racket-wielding human-scale tennis-playing robot named after Esther Vergeer, a Dutch former professional wheelchair tennis player.
“A system of cameras around the tennis court see where the tennis ball is. When we use cameras from different angles, we can triangulate where the ball is in space, and we can then make a plan of where we want (the robot) to be so we can plan where the wheelchair needs to swing to hit the ball at a specific intercept point in the trajectory,” Nathaniel Belles, a Georgia Tech student on the project, said in a video presentation of ESTHER.
Another large-scale model, the Sportbot tennis robot, offers an advanced training tool to replicate a human opponent.
Created in Slovenia, Sportbot comes with advanced ball-launching mechanisms to simulate slices, top spins and flat shots up to 75 mph.
The bot’s mobility mimics the movement of a human, allowing it to change the angle of its shots and forcing its human opponent to work on footwork and positioning.
Sportbot’s mobile app offers extensive customization options, allowing users to create and save personalized training drills, according to a first-hand account of the technology.
Though it isn’t a tennis machine, Tesla Inc.’s Optimus humanoid can now catch tennis balls, after it got a new hand upgrade.
The company shared the feat in a video that shows the general-purpose, bi-pedal robot adjusting its hands to catch tennis balls thrown at high speed.
Tesla plans to deploy pre-production prototypes of Optimus in its factories by late 2025; production units should be available to other companies by 2026. Optimus is intended to perform unsafe, repetitive tasks.
