German Robot Learns How to Play Ping-Pong [VIDEO]

[brightcove video="1932211609001 "/]

Unlike in Hollywood Sci-Fi thrillers, humans and robots have only really battled in games like chess and Jeopardy. Now the struggle moves to the Ping-Pong table. Researchers have taught a robot how to play table tennis, proving once again that robots may be able to learn how to imitate humans by observing them perform actions and then mimicking them.

Katharina Muelling and other scientists at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany mounted a robotic arm equipped with a camera to the ceiling. Then, to train it, Muelling guided the arm through a series of shots. After some practice, the robot was left on its own to play against a human player and, after the training, it was able to improvise, learning on the fly how to counter shots it hadn't seen before.

After an hour without any help, the robot was able to return 88% of the shots. The research opens the door to robots performing a wide range of tasks after being taught by humans.

Watch the video above to learn more about this amazing robot. Do you think one day robots will be able to compete in sports against humans? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.