Improving your table tennis skills require regular training with partners suited to your skill level. Problem is, those potential training partners aren’t always going to be in generous supply. The Omron Forpheus is a ping-pong robot that looks to bridge that gap.
A large robot that sets up on one end of a ping pong table, it can serve as a viable training partner that can serve the ball, return your strikes, and play a full game like an actual skilled player. Even better, it can adjust its skill level to suit your current abilities, so you can improve your game in a gradual and efficient manner.
The Omron Forpheus uses a trio of cameras to determine the exact location of both the ball and its human opponent. It feeds those readings to the onboard AI, which predicts the ball’s trajectory to decide which position the integrated arm will take the paddle. More than anticipating where the ball needs to be returned, the AI can also size up its opponents and automatically adjust its play to compensate for each player’s skill level, so it will run entirely different plays when fighting pros, intermediate players, and absolute novices (e.g. it will hit more arched shots for beginners while take harder swings at skilled players).
As of now, the Omron Forpheus isn’t available for sale, as they’re still working on the current prototype. You can learn more from the link below.