High-Speed Precision Ping Pong Robot 

A new robotic ping pong arm from MIT hits with 88% accuracy and blistering speed—paving the way for smarter humanoid robots in real-world applications.

MIT engineers have unveiled a high-speed ping pong-playing robot that returns shots with a 88% accuracy—blending athletic precision with cutting-edge robotics. The new system, developed by the MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab, could do more than just rally with humans; it may soon power next-gen humanoid robots for high-stakes tasks like search and rescue.

The robot features a lightweight, multijointed arm, modeled after the MIT Humanoid’s limb, mounted at one end of a standard ping pong table. Armed with a conventional paddle, it’s aided by a network of high-speed motion-capture cameras and predictive control algorithms that calculate the speed, spin, and trajectory of incoming balls in milliseconds. In a test of 150 consecutive shots, the bot returned loop, drive, and chop shots with nearly equal precision—around 88% accuracy across all types. Its paddle swings reached average speeds of 11 meters per second, with peak strikes hitting 19 meters per second (about 42 mph), approaching professional human player levels.

– Advertisement –

What sets the design apart from other ping pong bots—such as those developed by Google DeepMind or Omron—is its adaptability. Unlike systems specialized solely for gameplay, this robot is a research platform to explore how fast, reactive manipulation skills can be transferred to more versatile, mobile robots.The team now aims to increase the robot’s playing radius by mounting it on a moving base. Future upgrades could simulate human-like opponents, offering a more realistic training tool for players—and a step closer to responsive, multi-functional humanoids.

“Intercepting fast-moving objects with precision is critical for dynamic real-world tasks,” says MIT grad student David Nguyen, co-author of the study. “We’re applying ping pong as a testbed for broader robotic intelligence and agility.”