Ping-Pong Robot's Skills Stun Tokyo Crowd
TOPIO is Vietnam's first successfully manufactured human-shaped robot, and it plays a wicked game of ping-pong.TOPIO was one of the stand-out robots at the International Robot Exhibition (REX) held in Tokyo from November 28 to December 1.
Designed and produced by Vietnamese company Tosy, TOPIO plays ping-pong against human competitors, and regularly wins. The two-armed, six-legged robot has a hexapod for its legs, giving it 20 degrees of freedom to move quickly about. It uses four high-speed cameras to identify the orbit of the ball and accurately return shots. Tosy claims that the robot knows how to hit an incoming shot just 20 cm after it has left the opponent's paddle.
The robot can also calculate scores and express feelings upon losing or winning a game.
In addition to ping-pong, TOPIO is also programmed to perform martial arts or play games such as TOSY flying ring and TOSY UFO with human partners.
Ho Vinh Hoang, General Director and Chief Designer of the TOPIO project, said that this TOPIO is just the first version. The company only spent two years designing the robot, which may explain why TOPIO sometimes fails to return the ball. However, the company plans to improve the robot's athletic abilities in the future.
Many visitors at REX were intrigued with TOPIO, with the editor of Technology and Industry News calling TOPIO the most prominent robot at the exhibition. Several representatives from tech fairs also invited TOPIO to perform at their events. One US company has even expressed interest in purchasing TOPIO for upgrading.
According to VietNamNet Bridge, many Vietnamese looked proudly on TOPIO, which was introduced at REX as the new image of the country. Hoang said many visitors were surprised when told that TOPIO came from Vietnam. But hopefully, there'll be more to come.
TOPIO's next destination will be the Spielwarenmese Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany, on February 2-8, 2008.
Below is a video of TOPIO at REX:
More information:Tosy Toys
Source: Robot World News