@Sp3: I'm sure you saw the signs when it had it's hulking robot arm around your wife, mocking you with it's robotic silence.

SteveIsRad

I read the robots script as Fuck it! instead of puck is... time to get glasses.

CattleSnake

if anyone lives south of the river in london, lets go drink mojitos in Balham tomorrow!

elronathon

Epic. Definitely needs more forward velocity, though. It can't hit for shit.

ShaggE

I miss air hockey so bad... I haven't played since there was a Playdium a couple of hours' drive from my place.

That arm is awesome. The speed of modern industrial robots is great. I know it's no big deal for them, but it's also pretty sweet that it can hold the pad touching the table at the right height and angle regardless of its position or speed. I can appreciate the difficulty of setting something like that up.

Also, nice landing lights on the mobo, lol...

fuchikoma

@side_effect:
Oh you beat me to it. >.>

Kyolux

@carrliadiere:
It actually reads up to three bounces ahead. So wouldn't be THAT easy to score against it.
More like goodstuffmaynard said, it lacks a good attack.

Kyolux

@snowferret: sorry. thats 3 bounces in advance.

side_effect

@carrliadiere: they said it tracks up to bounces in advance so it doesn't need to react very fast. it already knows where to go.
that being said.. if you were to change the trajectory of the puck in the middle of its calculations, would that confuse it??

side_effect

What does this robot remind me of a handicapped kid?

snowferret

@KJA: Maybe Kasparov can play it, then lose and claim IBM had air hockey grand masters behind the scenes controlling it all.

Doesn't it look like it could be beaten fairly easily though, using pace? I can't get the audio on the video at work, but it seems like it doesn't react THAT quickly.

carrliadiere

@andrewmedina: Impending implosion?

Dannon

It all starts with innocent airhockey then one night you wake up and the arm is choking you while you sleep. Don't trust the machines play against Human's instead

Sp3

The world doesn't need another Deep Blue...

KJA

Sure it looks pretty good at defense, but based on the videos, it doesn't have much offense. I have a feeling watching 2 of these play against each other would be an exercise in boredom with a score of 0-0.

goodstuffmaynard

I now know my goal in life. Beat this machine.

Detre

@andrewmedina: That would be like when people fight their clone in a movie...

Astrofox

@andrewmedina:

Best idea ever.

Solid_hedgehog

now lets get two of them against each other.

andrewmedina

Sweet

BristolRuss

Ok. This story has set off an age-old craving now...

Does anyone at all know of where to get an articulated robotic arm that can lift a pound or more, be controlled manually or maybe with a common PC, but not a special robot control module, and costs under $2000?

-_-a

fuchikoma

@jesusofwales:

Addendum:

It would be IO bound though, so the camera would have to be pretty damn fast both taking the images and getting them to the control program, even if it is just tracking a glowing blob. Witchcraft it the only plausible explanation I can think of.

jesusofwales

It actually seems completely rubbish ... It's an anticipatory robot arm ... We've had them for years.

This machine could have easily been built 5-10 Years ago.

What a time waster.

JamesR87

i'd just take the strip off of the puck. it can't block if it isn't CHEATING.

spite_nihilo

@side_effect:

My guess would be that it re-assesses the bounces each time the sensor takes a reading. At first this might seem like wasteful CPU usage, but 1) it would improve defences as it would take deceleration into account and 2) they seem to be showcasing some sort of processor so too many calculations probably isn't on their list of concerns.

I'm currently coding AI for a game of Pong I'm working on and I use a similar system and the performance is fine - in both cases, its just pure maths to work out bounces and processors are great at that so there's no problem with thousands of re-calculations a second.

jesusofwales

I could beat it blindfolded.

kumuasata

It can block the ones on the ground.... BUT CAN IT block the ones in the air, I think not. (food for thought)

PXShaman

@fuchikoma: Build it!

Or get an undersexed college kid to do so. Do you need all six degrees of freedom? If not, that'll be easier.

If you only need a pound of lifting capacity, and I'm assuming a small arm, you could get something secondhand, especially if it's old.

You could concievably get one at a factory auction, or you might be able to score some sort of educational model.

That's a numbers game, and you'll spend a lot of time searching for one, and chances are you'll need to give it mainteinance.

Frankly, if you don't need something very precise and you don't need a lot of carrying capacity, you can make one or get someone to make one. It's easier than it sounds, especially if you either
a) Make a gantry robot, or
b) Have someone who knows his way around a matrix.

It'll be hell for a couple months in any case.

Grive

@fuchikoma:
And I know I've already asked the impossible, but it should be able to at least take a gripper, since I don't really need to spray/polish/stamp/do nothing all day.

fuchikoma

It's soooo CUTE! i want one! Seriously, i'm not even kidding.

8-Bit_Jay

its these kinds of things that scare people into thinking that robots will take over the world :P

@andrewmedina:
air hockey playing robot DEATH MATCH 4: IN 3D!!! lol

hrabbit

@fuchikoma: [The Edubot 100].

You might have to suffer a bit to get one, but should be close to your budget, connects to your PC, and comes with a gripper!

Only 5 degrees, though.

Grive

@kumuasata:

You and me both

iamsolidsnake

this just made my year.

xoforoct

@fuchikoma: And if, perchance, you could up your budget to $200,000, you can always go to [www.motoman.com] for all your alcoholic needs.

Grive

@FISSURE: Yea, then the robots will start doing drugs. Roid Rage Robots thats gonna be the first team name. woot

Houjutsu

Wow, that's pretty cool

Eventually humans won't even need to play sports, we will have the robots for that.

FISSURE

I love it when it makes mistakes, it's so cute! But when it does a perfect hit it's just another robot arm.

Emo_Ranger

Lets get a mass production going and put it in every carnivals. Nephew needs a new Wii.

PsycheE

@Grive:
Hey, that's great! Thanks. 5 degrees is fine - that looks like what I spent the morning looking for. Most of what I'd found was either $2000-$50,000 arms that need a $5000-10,000 controller and power supply, or little kids' hobby kits that have zero strength. I actually have a working Radio Shack "Armatron" at home and while it's fun to move, you can hear the gears click and grind as it fails to lift a pencil. I believe the entire thing is powered from one 6V DC motor.

But I'll definitely look into the EduBots...

fuchikoma

Yeah, but could it beat Kelly Leak?

T-man

@fuchikoma: Yeah, them robots be fun.

I studied in the field of robotics, actually. Industrial automation. I remember that summer I started to build a delta robot. Frustrating, annoying, complex, nutcracking (erm... literally. Long story), yet oddly fun.

I'm not sure what happened to it. It ended up in the hands of a friend who refined it for a class... and I kinda lost contact.

Grive

It almost got scored on at 1:23, did you notice that? With its lack of offense, I think it actually wouldn't be too difficult to beat, just tedious because it would probably take a while to accumulate the ubiquitous seven goals.

Chagrin

Yo hockey puck! Maybe you should have run this on Dan "Conehead" Asteroid's birthday, Canada Day, July 1. That CEO sure has a Canadian accent methinks. Good innovation though maybe it'll clear debris from airport runways someday (not whole airports like Mirabel, way-out-side Montreal where the Concorde And Freddie Laker's planes used to land) Happy First and Fourth!

JojiMyers

I think the guy actually scored against it at about 1:00 since you see him shoot the puck and then hear it go down when the camera is moving off but it couldn't have gone down on the guys side because there wasn't enough time for the robot to shoot it back and you usually see the guy bend down to pick up the puck immediately but this time he simply stands there.

Spiderbait

Cool at 2:47 the robot actually scores, robots are smarter than us.

Dayhalk

@Grive:
Nice. I'm all PC myself. I can tell you tons about computers and consoles, but even circuit design pwns me.

I have always wanted a robot arm that wasn't quite 100% useless though and it seems they make them for either kids or factories/labs. I guess there was a third niche well hidden there for school/college/university science departments too.

Delta robot? *looks it up*
Oh hey... I remember seeing something like that on Gawker before...

fuchikoma

@fuchikoma: Yeah, it's based on the same principle. Only the other way around (coordinates->motion instead of motion->coordinates). And mine had like a 4 ft radius. And a mean elbow uppercut.

Grive

@Astrofox: I'm not so sure it would be. The robotic options at much less than a clone. The perceiving of diverse options are limited to what the robot has been programmed to pierce while humans have a much wider {natural} scope of perception.

Zeouterlimits

@JamesR87:
In what sci-fi universe do you live in, where ever it is I want in. I want my rocket pants.

Odin

@Spiderbait:
Doesn't it just get stuck in the middle? There's no real noise to me that sounds like he scored and at 1:05 the opponent guy moves around to hit it from the centre.

Josdeb

I bed it can stab meat bags just as fast.. robot uprising soon :|

IroKuMata

Dude, I would work that machine. I'm pro.

Jaimz11785

Also, I imagine this thing is programmed alot like the AI in PONG.

dowingba

You need an excuse to get drunk and blow stuff up?

dowingba

Whoa whoa whoa. It's not the robot arm sucking the fun out of the game, it's the technogeek BABBLING ABOUT IT FOR OVER THREE MINUTES.

Squirrelbot3000

Crecente: "I'd pay good money to see this thing score on itself"

Ewwww @ weird robot fetish.

Hori

the end of humanity as we know it

genbeef

he said it predicted up to 3 bounces? i wonder how it plays at high speed, cause that seemed pretty slow.

islandknight

The Nuvation Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line July 4th, 2008. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Air-HockeyBot begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, July 29th.

Sturmfaust

Oh no! Robotkind has learned air hockey rule #1: Keep your racket/club thing in front of the goal. If it learns how to actually hit the puck at a 2nd grade level, mankind is DOOMED!!!

You heard the science dork say "aboot," didn't you? I always knew Canadians would be responsible for humanity's demise!

ViolentLee