Ping-Pong Robot Makes History By Beating Top-Level Human Players (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0181871096
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/22/2138211/ping-pong-robot-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/sports/ping-pong-robot-ace-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players-2026-04-22/
> Ace, created by the Japanese company Sony's AI research division, is the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport, one that requires rapid decisions and precision execution, the project's leader said. Ace did so by employing high-speed perception, AI-based control and a state-of-the-art robotic system. There have been various ping-pong-playing robots since 1983, but until now they were unable to rival highly skilled human competitors. Ace changed that with its performances against human elite-level and professional players in matches following the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport's governing body, and officiated by licensed umpires.
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> The project's goal was not only to compete at table tennis but to develop insights into how robots can perceive, plan and act with human-like speed and precision in dynamic environments. In matches detailed in the study, Ace in April 2025 won three out of five versus elite players and lost two matches against professional players, the top skill level in the sport. Sony AI said that since then Ace beat professional players in December 2025 and last month.
"The success of Ace, with its perception system and learning-based control algorithm, suggests that similar techniques could be applied to other areas requiring fast, real-time control and human interaction -- such as manufacturing and service robotics, as well as applications across sports, entertainment and safety-critical physical domains," said Peter Durr, director of Sony AI Zurich and leader for Sony AI's project Ace.
The findings have been [2]published in the journal Nature .
[1] https://www.reuters.com/sports/ping-pong-robot-ace-makes-history-by-beating-top-level-human-players-2026-04-22/
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10338-5
Run Forrest... (Score:3)
So between this robot, and the robot that recently set a record half-marathon time, does this mean we can now build an android Forrest Gump?
Re: (Score:3)
> So between this robot, and the robot that recently set a record half-marathon time, does this mean we can now build an android Forrest Gump?
There are a couple problems.
(1) The research into making humanoid bots monsoon rain proof is barely started.
(2) The research into making a chocolate powered humanoid bot hasn't even started yet.
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe you should first invent an AI that teaches you the rules of ping pong?
Any videos? (Score:1)
Does the robot rely on vision only with cameras in same position as eyes? Or is it using more sensors etc than the human
Re:Any videos? (Score:4, Informative)
If only there was some way to get at this sort of information, some article containing it.
> Ace's architecture integrates nine synchronized cameras and three vision systems to track a spinning ball with exceptional accuracy and speedy processing time.
> "This is fast enough to capture motion that would be a blur to the human eye," Dürr said.
Re: (Score:3)
> "This is fast enough to capture motion that would be a blur to the human eye," Dürr said.
I didn't know one of Elon Musk's kids was involved with this.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. A humanoid form robot with restriction of no more than two cameras spaced no further apart than human eyes, that would be impressive. But without such restrictions, this is totally doable in Python, no need for AI. There is a guy who did some years ago a similar achievement of darts you can not miss the center, I bet he could do this too, given enough resources, even when this requires a bit more, like angles and collision moment speed and direction.
Drones (Score:2)
Or maybe nobody has tried very hard to play ping pong until now. The Ukrainians can shoot down hundreds of drones and missiles per day. Those things move at hundreds of miles per hour and are programmed to actively avoid interception. I'm sure if the Ukrainians didn't have more pressing matters at hand they could deflect a single ping pong ball that follows Newtonian laws.
Wii (Score:2)
Ok, but can it beat me at Wii Sports Table Tennis?
Ping pong is our national sport in China (Score:1)
But now AI has to ruin our national sport as well. I play ping pong since I was 3 years old and my Chinese mother showed me how to play. AI ruins everything just get rid of it all at once if you are able of critical thinking mark my words
--
www.fark.com/politics
Re:Ping pong is our national sport in China (Score:5, Interesting)
I once drove a marathon in 30 minutes in my car. I understand several top-level runners quit the sport in disgust following my achievement.
Re: Ping pong is our national sport in China (Score:1)
And we never see it hit a serve in the videos I watched. So I remain unclear how it won.