Since its creation, the only way to play air hockey has been with two human players facing off. Now, you can build your very own robotic opponent if you’re willing to put in the effort — and if you’re prepared to lose.
The robot is powered by a smartphone and built from 3D-printer parts. By watching and moving with the puck, it can effectively block goal attempts from the human side and even regularly beat human opponents. Creator Jose Julio of JJ Robotics explains:
“The smartphone’s camera is looking at the playing court. The camera’s captured data is processed in real time by the smartphone. Detecting the position of the puck and the ‘pusher robot’ (and according to the current location of all the elements on the court), your smartphone makes decisions and commands the robot what to do via Wi-Fi.”
According to Julio, your smartphone, in effect, becomes “an augmented reality device, showing predicted trajectories and position of all the objects involved in this game.”
Finally, “the robot is locally controlled by the jjRobots Brain Shield, which dictates the speed and acceleration of the robot, sending the appropriate pulses to the stepper motors.”
Think you can beat a robot in air hockey? Here are the instructions and the source code to build your own. In the meantime, take a look at what you’ll be going up against:
Source: TechCrunch
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