TenniRobo - super table tennis robot in compact size

[Lightzy]

That looks spectacular.

I'm buying one for our club for sure when available (international)

 

[Simas]

That looks spectacular.

I'm buying one for our club for sure when available (international)

And please don't forget to post a review

 

[TenniRobo]

Yesterday we made video about real training process with the robot. I need some time to prepare this material, but for the moment here's a very short video from yesterday.

 

[TenniRobo]

Hi all!
We have made cool video about playing with TenniRobo using programs.
Of course, the robot can make very strong spin, but our main goal was to create REALISTIC balls - as human makes in real game.
In this video you'll see:
1) serve with back spin - top spin to right zone near player - top spin to central zone near player
2) balls with back spin to 3 different zones
3) balls with top spin to 3 different zones with 60 balls/minute temp
Enjoy!

 

[langel]

Its awesome!

I have some questions - what is the lowest hight of the head at which it can function, the longest distance from the table and can we put it to the corners /longest side distance from the centre/.

 

[TenniRobo]

Its awesome!

I have some questions - what is the lowest hight of the head at which it can function, the longest distance from the table and can we put it to the corners /longest side distance from the centre/.

I'm sorry for delay with answer, I was far from the Internet.
Actually, lowest height of robot/head is restricted only by height of your tripod. A lot of tripods have minimum height about 20-30 centimeters (8-12 inches). If you want to place the robot "under the table", you can coerce vertical angle of head from mobile app (head has 45 degrees vertical angle to upper direction and 22 degrees to bottom direction), or just incline tripod's head - like on this photo

​

The longest distance from the table is restricted by motors speed and type of ball's spin (ball with back spin can fly longer than ball with top spin). TeniiRobo uses very powerful high speed motors (airplanes and drones use these motors), so it can make very strong shots. For example, for no-spin balls maximum distance is more than 6 meters from the table. Ball with back spin flies longer. It means, that you can place robot anywhere around your table and simulate any balls that you want (have you ever dreamt to play a game with your favorite table tennis star? )

 

[langel]

I'm sorry for delay with answer, I was far from the Internet.
Actually, lowest height of robot/head is restricted only by height of your tripod. A lot of tripods have minimum height about 20-30 centimeters (8-12 inches). If you want to place the robot "under the table", you can coerce vertical angle of head from mobile app (head has 45 degrees vertical angle to upper direction and 22 degrees to bottom direction), or just incline tripod's head - like on this photo

View attachment 16861
The longest distance from the table is restricted by motors speed and type of ball's spin (ball with back spin can fly longer than ball with top spin). TeniiRobo uses very powerful high speed motors (airplanes and drones use these motors), so it can make very strong shots. For example, for no-spin balls maximum distance is more than 6 meters from the table. Ball with back spin flies longer. It means, that you can place robot anywhere around your table and simulate any balls that you want (have you ever dreamt to play a game with your favorite table tennis star? )

Thanks
Thats really great!

 

[TenniRobo]

Can anybody help me with simple thing? I want to create a comparison of few modern robots (abilities, features, etc..) with TenniRobo, and I need photos of these robots. I'm not sure if I can grab photos from manufacturer's websites due copyright rules.
So, if somebody has these robots, could you please make a photo and send it to my email tennirobo_at_gmail_dot_com (I will add this photo to comparison table)

• Newgy Robo-Pong 2050 (or 2055)
• TrainerBot
• Butterfly Amicus
• Newgy Robo-Pong 3050XL

Thank you!

P.S. I've created the FAQ page on Tennirobo website, and I'm going to add answers there. So, if you have any questions, you are welcome! Here is it https://www.tennirobo.com/p/faq.html

 

[suds79]

Any projection on a release date? I like everything I'm seeing here from this robot. Just waiting for it to become available.

 

[TenniRobo]

Any projection on a release date? I like everything I'm seeing here from this robot. Just waiting for it to become available.

I'm selling them now in limited mode (limited quantity) via email communication. I've already sold few robots, next batch will be shipped in the middle of August.

 

[Simas]

I'm selling them now in limited mode (limited quantity) via email communication. I've already sold few robots, next batch will be shipped in the middle of August.

that's very interesting. please update us on your progress

 

[Simas]

a small idea- you should make the bucket transparent, so that player could see the number of balls remaining

 

[TenniRobo]

a small idea- you should make the bucket transparent, so that player could see the number of balls remaining

Hm...
Why do you think it's important? Finally, you will see when the bucket will be empty, isn't it? I'm just trying to imagine the situation when it will be important...

 

[Simas]

Hm...
Why do you think it's important? Finally, you will see when the bucket will be empty, isn't it? I'm just trying to imagine the situation when it will be important...

not that it's very important, but a nice feature just to have an idea whats going on

one more question -is there a finite number of how many phones the robot can connect to through a Bluetooth? For example, if it is used not for a personal use, but in the club. Everyone makes their own routine, connects to the robot with his phone and does the drill and then another players does his drills from his phone and so on...

 

[TenniRobo]

not that it's very important, but a nice feature just to have an idea whats going on

one more question -is there a finite number of how many phones the robot can connect to through a Bluetooth? For example, if it is used not for a personal use, but in the club. Everyone makes their own routine, connects to the robot with his phone and does the drill and then another players does his drills from his phone and so on...

The robot keeps only one connection.
Any person, who has installed app on his phone, can connect to the robot - but only if the robot hasn't connected to any other smartphone yet. While you keep connection via Bluetooth - it's yours! (it's more safe for robot's owner)
If the robot isn't connected to any smartphone, any person can upload his routines to the robot's memory (to the one of 5 memory slots). Then you can connect to the robot and see what is in it's memory. You can download this drill to your smartphone and save, or just run and play this drill with your smartphone or IR remote.
So, robot's memory it's a simple way to share your drills with your friends without any Internet connection

 

[brokenball]

Stupid question Suga , can they make Corkscrew spin ?

This would require all the motors to angle themselves a little bit off axis. This would require an extra motor and make the mounting of the 3 throw motors more difficult.
I think I know a relatively easy way to do this. There would need to be an outer ring gear that would turn the planetary gears that angle the motors left or right, maybe clockwise or counter clockwise is a better term, from the center line.
Since all the gears will move together, there is no problem with keeping them synchronized. If you have solid works and a 3d printer it shouldn't take too long to implement this.
I don't think any robot has this feature yet. I think it is a good suggestion as cork screw serves are sometime difficult to return. There are also cork screw lobs.

I still think there should be a catch net. Besides catching balls, it could have a vibration sensor the will tell the robot to shoot the next ball. None of the robots have this feature either. It makes the timing of the return of the ball more realistic. Of course there needs to be a time out so a ball will still launch if the last ball doesn't hit the net. There must also be a way of disabling the vibration sensor so the time between balls can be lengthen for practice.

I see some pretty good software. I like the idea of using a cell phone as an interface. It is obvious to me that software will not be problem for the TenniRobo engineers. As an engineer, my hat is off to you. I can see in the video that the TenniRobo can throw real loops where the topspin is high relative to the speed. This requires at least two heads and at least one must spin backwards.

 

[TenniRobo]

This would require all the motors to angle themselves a little bit off axis. This would require an extra motor and make the mounting of the 3 throw motors more difficult.
I think I know a relatively easy way to do this. There would need to be an outer ring gear that would turn the planetary gears that angle the motors left or right, maybe clockwise or counter clockwise is a better term, from the center line.
Since all the gears will move together, there is no problem with keeping them synchronized. If you have solid works and a 3d printer it shouldn't take too long to implement this.
I don't think any robot has this feature yet. I think it is a good suggestion as cork screw serves are sometime difficult to return. There are also cork screw lobs.

I still think there should be a catch net. Besides catching balls, it could have a vibration sensor the will tell the robot to shoot the next ball. None of the robots have this feature either. It makes the timing of the return of the ball more realistic. Of course there needs to be a time out so a ball will still launch if the last ball doesn't hit the net. There must also be a way of disabling the vibration sensor so the time between balls can be lengthen for practice.

There are a lot of new ideas for me here, thanks!

I see some pretty good software. I like the idea of using a cell phone as an interface. It is obvious to me that software will not be problem for the TenniRobo engineers. As an engineer, my hat is off to you. I can see in the video that the TenniRobo can throw real loops where the topspin is high relative to the speed. This requires at least two heads and at least one must spin backwards.

Thank you!
But I must say, that the one of the greatest Tennirobo's features is ability to independently adjust spin and speed. In TenniRobo you can set spin of the ball to 3000 rpm (for example) and change speed of the ball by other slider. Ball will change speed, but spin will be constant - 3000 rpm - in the whole range of possible speed. So topspin is not relative to speed in the video
Also TenniRobo can change topspin to back spin (actualy any spin to any spin) with it's one head only, it does it by reversing motors (if it required)

 

[ttmonster]

Most professional players loop with Corkscrew ... its never pure topspin ... nobody wants to take the spin on directly ... so this would really help .. the only thing I can think of is to also add some features that would make the timing slightly random ... what I see with a lot of people who practice against robots is that they are thrown off by random slow balls or slightly varying timings ..because they get used to the clockwork like timing of the machine and then forget to see the ball ... adding minute randomness can help the scenario ...

having said all of this, and I don't mean to be a party pooper , I will tell you the real problem with robots , at an actual table tennis rally you cannot really watch the ball and get ready to return it .. .all you actually do is read the cues from the opponents body position .. this is something you cannot really practice against a robot ... here is an article with the calculations for a tennis scenario , I bet it would be only faster in table tennis ...

So I would think if you really want to make a splash on this area , you should focus something around VR ... that will be a real innovation if you can get pro players to simulate the opponent

This would require all the motors to angle themselves a little bit off axis. This would require an extra motor and make the mounting of the 3 throw motors more difficult.
I think I know a relatively easy way to do this. There would need to be an outer ring gear that would turn the planetary gears that angle the motors left or right, maybe clockwise or counter clockwise is a better term, from the center line.
Since all the gears will move together, there is no problem with keeping them synchronized. If you have solid works and a 3d printer it shouldn't take too long to implement this.
I don't think any robot has this feature yet. I think it is a good suggestion as cork screw serves are sometime difficult to return. There are also cork screw lobs.

I still think there should be a catch net. Besides catching balls, it could have a vibration sensor the will tell the robot to shoot the next ball. None of the robots have this feature either. It makes the timing of the return of the ball more realistic. Of course there needs to be a time out so a ball will still launch if the last ball doesn't hit the net. There must also be a way of disabling the vibration sensor so the time between balls can be lengthen for practice.

I see some pretty good software. I like the idea of using a cell phone as an interface. It is obvious to me that software will not be problem for the TenniRobo engineers. As an engineer, my hat is off to you. I can see in the video that the TenniRobo can throw real loops where the topspin is high relative to the speed. This requires at least two heads and at least one must spin backwards.

 

[CroneOne]

So I would think if you really want to make a splash on this area , you should focus something around VR ... that will be a real innovation if you can get pro players to simulate the opponent

I've been thinking this too. A really good VR simulation where it could read your bat and movements well would be amazing.
A paddle controller with force feedback would be sweet.
The physics and capture would have to be unreal though to pick up the contacts correctly.
Has anyone tried "Eleven"? Seems to be one of the top ones out there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/488310/Eleven_Table_Tennis_VR/


*The only drawback I can see is trying to do fast footwork with a clunky VR helmet on

 

[germanoweber]

Did you developed the app to control the robot by yourself?