Toyota robot can’t slam dunk but throws a mean three-pointer
Posted Apr 1, 2019 01:30:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TOKYO — It can’t dribble, let alone slam dunk, but Toyota’s basketball robot hardly ever misses a free throw or a three-pointer.
The 207-centimetre (six-foot-10) -tall machine made five of eight three-pointer shots in a demonstration in a Tokyo suburb Monday, a ratio its engineers say is worse than usual.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s robot, called Cue 3, computes as a three-dimensional image where the basket is, using sensors on its torso, and adjusts motors inside its arm and knees to give the shot the right angle and propulsion for a swish.
Efforts in developing human-shaped robots underline a global shift in robotics use from pre-programmed mechanical arms in limited places like factories to functioning in the real world with people.
The 2017 version of the robot was designed to make free throws.
The Associated Press
