This table tennis robot can keep up with top players

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• A new table tennis robot competes with professionals and wins individual matches against strong opponents.
• The system captures the ball precisely and uses AI to calculate optimal strokes.
• The results show that "Ace" reaches and sometimes exceeds the level of top human players for the first time.

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High-tech at the table: the robot "Ace" challenges professionals - and is already winning its first matches. The developers from the company "Sony" report on this in a study published in the journal "Nature" on Wednesday.

"There have been various table tennis robots since 1983, and numerous table tennis experiments are underway worldwide - but to date, no such system has come close to the skills of top human players," said study leader Peter Dürr from "Sony AI" in Zurich.

According to the study, "Ace" lost both duels in tests against two Japanese professionals, but won one of seven individual matches. Against good amateur players, the robot won three out of five duels.

"Ace" tracks the ball with cameras that record its position, speed and rotation. An AI system learned to execute shots optimally.