Robots
playing air hockey can play strategically as a result of work by researchers in
Japan at Chiba University's Namiki Lab. The system they constructed consists of
an air-hockey table, a Barrett four-axis robotic arm, two high-speed cameras,
and an external PC. This is not the first air hockey playing robot. Back in
2008, for one, there was the Nuvation Air Hockey robot that grabbed admirers.
This was an industrial robot equipped with an optical sensor programmed to
follow and react to a moving object.
The
differentiator with the Namiki Lab robot is that this one is able to strategize
playing against its human opponent. Professor Akio Namiki and his group have
designed a robot that can shift its strategy based on the opponent's playing
style. The robot isn't just playing but is making its plays specifically
against the opponent in any one game.
"The
robot observes the speed and position of the player's paddle in relation to the
puck. This data can be described by what is known as a Motion Pattern Histogram
(MPH). The robot uses this data to estimate whether its opponent is playing
aggressively or defensively.
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