Pool-playing Robot Rivals Humans

NewScientist (@newscientist) reports a robot has the flexibility and accuracy to play pool, completing 400 shots with an 80% success rate.

The robot, designed by Thomas Nierhoff, Omiros Kourakos, and Sandra Hirche at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, has two arms that can move in 7 different ways. Cameras mounted above the table track the position of the balls and cue, and feed this information to the robot's computers. It can then decide on the best move and calculate how the arms should be oriented to complete the stroke. To get into position, it rolls around the table using predetermined coordinates.

See the video.

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