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Kuka Robots Mastering Tennis Now

Sure, robots are good at cerebral games like chess or even Go. But tennis?

On the stand of the French Tennis Federation, not a land like no other. Music and lights come energize a show of a new genre: the clash between a robot and a tennis player in a futuristic atmosphere. On the ground, two robots, a robot server-side robot-player, and a human. RG Robot is a mix of expertise. Take the German Schunk and Kuka Robotics for robotics and mechanical part, a little studio Realtime Robotics for the software part and a joust grain sensors manufactured by Sick and you get a robot that handles the racket with skill and responsiveness! On the other side of the net, on the opposite side of each player (the robot and humans), to aim the boxes. The goal ? Send four shots on target to achieve the highest score. Currently the highest score is 36 points out of a maximum of 40. The farthest box, which is worth 10 points, catalyzes all the ambitions of the players. So much " a child comes here every morning to try his luck, he really wanted to do the maximum that when he misses a time block 10, it demoralizes and returns the next day ." The design of RG Robot is a perfect balance between technology, safety and performance.

(From Jeu, set et match, translated by le Google)

In Frederik Pohl's 1954 short story The Midas Plague, human beings used consumption robots took up the slack, playing human sports as necessary:

Pohl's Consumption robots

There was the butler robot, hard at work, his copper face expressionless. Dressed in Morey's own sports knickers and golfing shoes, the robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again, with Morey's own clubs...

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