An assistant professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology has revealed a robotic tennis partner that may soon become your sparring partner and skilled opponent.
Dr. Matthew Gombolay envisions a future where human-scale robots play a crucial role in sports and athletic training. His latest creation, ESTHER (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot) is inspired by the limitations of traditional static ball machines used for tennis training.
Unlike these conventional ball launchers, ESTHER is designed to simulate human opponents and thus, real match conditions, allowing athletes to improve their skills and performance more effectively.
A tennis enthusiast himself, Dr. Gombolay understands the need for a robot that could adapt to various playing styles and exploit weaknesses in a player’s game. By leveraging the design of wheelchairs used in wheelchair tennis, Dr. Gombolay and his team solved the question of moving ESTHER over the court.