Hardware Design for Table Tennis Robot Capable of Beating Professional Players

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26643v1
• Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2026 06:14:03 GMT
• Title: Hardware Design for Table Tennis Robot Capable of Beating Professional Players
• Abstract summary: This paper focuses on the hardware specifications required for a table tennis robot to beat professional players.<n>After analyzing the motions of elite players, we defined target specifications for the workspace, payload, external-force resistance, physical performance, serve capability, and end-effector accuracy.<n>Based on these specifications, we developed "Ace", a custom 8-DoF robot.
• Score: 32.40740138722726
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: This paper focuses on the hardware specifications required for a table tennis robot to beat professional players. After analyzing the motions of elite players, we defined target specifications for the workspace, payload, external-force resistance, physical performance, serve capability, and end-effector accuracy. Based on these specifications, we developed "Ace", a custom 8-DoF robot. The mechanical structure was improved through topology optimization to minimize mass while preserving stiffness. Motor and gearbox selection was optimized using an inverse-dynamics torque model. Low-order per-joint dynamics models with delay compensation were identified and integrated into simulation to enable the use of an RL control policy. Experiments demonstrated repeated full-stroke swings with a cycle time of 0.8 s and a peak racket-center velocity of 22 m/s. The robot successfully defeated multiple professional players.

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