海角大神

The ping pong-playing robot聽FORPHEUS is an engineering marvel. The only thing it doesn鈥檛 know how to do is let you win.

A new video from Guinness World Records is highlighting the Japanese-designed robot, which the world-record certifier deemed in September聽the world鈥檚聽鈥渇irst robot table tennis tutor鈥澛爁or its remarkable artificial intelligence and educative capabilities.

First unveiled by the Omron Corporation in 2015, the robot has a sensor that can monitor the position of its opponent and the movement of the ball 鈥撀爏ome 80 times per second 鈥撀爐o predict its trajectory and return the shot. And the array of cameras provide human students with a projected image of where the return shot will land.聽Scientist aficionados of the sport have been aiming for such an innovation for decades.

The main hurdle for Taku Oya, the project鈥檚 lead developer, was equipping the robot with the algorithms to evaluate its pupils鈥� level of ability, according to the world certifier鈥檚 website.聽That may underscore the advances in robotics made since the early days of mechanical gaming.

Back in 1984, 海角大神 profiled the ambitions of English electrical engineer John Billingsley, who was organizing a robots-only ping pong tournament designed to spur incipient innovations in the field:

The robot tutor鈥檚 name is an acronym of "Future Omron Robotics technology for exploring Possibility of HarmonizEd aUtomation with Sinic theoretics,鈥� and also stands for 鈥淔or Orpheus,鈥� as in the prophet and poet of Greek mythology.聽Creativity, one of Orpheus's legendary traits, is embedded in Omron鈥檚 guiding ethos: the company describes its mission as developing technologies that create harmony between humans and machines and help humans live more creative lives.聽

鈥淎t the moment it is a human who teaches a robot how to behave or teach,鈥� Mr. Taku told Guinness World Record鈥檚 site, 鈥渂ut in the next 20 years it may be possible that a robot teaches a robot or a robot develops a robot.鈥澛�