Video Friday: Robots Solving Table Tennis
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
Enjoy today's videos!
Imbuing robots with human-level performance" in anything is an enormous challenge, but it's worth it when you see a robot with the skill to interact with a human on a (nearly) human level. Google DeepMind has managed to achieve amateur human-level competence at table tennis, which is much harder than it looks, even for humans. Pannag Sanketi, a tech-lead manager in the robotics team at DeepMind, shared some interesting insights about performing the research. But first, video!
Some behind the scenes detail from Pannag:
- The robot had not seen any participants before. So we knew we had a cool agent, but we had no idea how it was going to fare in a full match with real humans. To witness it outmaneuver even some of the most advanced players was such a delightful moment for team!
- All the participants had a lot of fun playing against the robot, irrespective of who won the match. And all of them wanted to play more. Some of them said it will be great to have the robot as a playing partner. From the videos, you can even see how much fun the user study hosts sitting there (who are not authors on the paper) are having watching the games!
- Barney, who is a professional coach, was an advisor on the project, and our chief evaluator of robot's skills the way he evaluates his students. He also got surprised by how the robot is always able to learn from the last few weeks' sessions.
- We invested a lot in remote and automated 24x7 operations. So not the setup in this video, but there are other cells that we can run 24x7 with a ball thrower.
- We even tried robot-vs-robot, i.e. 2 robots playing against each other! :) The line between collaboration and competition becomes very interesting when they try to learn by playing with each other.
[ DeepMind ]
Thanks, Heni!
Yoink.
[ MIT ]
Considering how their stability and recovery is often tested, teaching robot dogs to be shy of humans is an excellent idea.
[ Deep Robotics ]
Yes, quadruped robots need tow truck hooks.
[ Paper ]
Earthworm-inspired robots require novel actuators, and Ayato Kanada at Kyushu University has come up with a neat one.
[ Paper ]
Thanks, Ayato!
Meet the AstroAnt! This miniaturized swarm robot can ride atop a lunar rover and collect data related to its health, including surface temperatures and damage from micrometeoroid impacts. In the summer of 2024, with support from our collaborator Castrol, the Media Lab's Space Exploration Initiative tested AstroAnt in the Canary Islands, where the volcanic landscape resembles the lunar surface.
[ MIT ]
Kengoro has a new forearm that mimics the human radioulnar joint giving it an even more natural badminton swing.
[ JSK Lab ]
Thanks, Kento!
Gromit's concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a smart" gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master... or Wallace may never be able to invent again!
ASTORINO is a modern 6-axis robot based on 3D printing technology. Programmable in AS-language, it facilitates the preparation of classes with ready-made teaching materials, is easy both to use and to repair, and gives the opportunity to learn and make mistakes without fear of breaking it.
[ Kawasaki ]
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are testing a prototype of IceNode, a robot designed to access one of the most difficult-to-reach places on Earth. The team envisions a fleet of these autonomous robots deploying into unmapped underwater cavities beneath Antarctic ice shelves. There, they'd measure how fast the ice is melting - data that's crucial to helping scientists accurately project how much global sea levels will rise.
[ IceNode ]
Los Alamos National Laboratory, in a consortium with four other National Laboratories, is leading the charge in finding the best practices to find orphaned wells. These abandoned wells can leak methane gas into the atmosphere and possibly leak liquid into the ground water.
[ LANL ]
Looks like Fourier has been working on something new, although this is still at the point of looks like" rather than something real.
[ Fourier ]
Bio-Inspired Robot Hands: Altus Dexterity is a collaboration between researchers and professionals from Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC, the University of Illinois and the University of Houston.
[ Altus Dexterity ]
PiPER is a lightweight robotic arm with six integrated joint motors for smooth, precise control. Weighing just 4.2kg, it easily handles a 1.5kg payload and is made from durable yet lightweight materials for versatile use across various environments. Available for just $2,499 USD.
[ AgileX ]
At 104 years old, Lilabel has seen over a century of automotive transformation, from sharing a single car with her family in the 1920s to experiencing her first ride in a robotaxi.
[ Zoox ]
Traditionally, blind juggling robots use plates that are slightly concave to help them with ball control, but it's also possible to make a blind juggler the hard way. Which, honestly, is much more impressive.
[ Jugglebot ]