First, it was the Rubik's Cube solving Lego robot and now, one that not only plays ping pong, but also, has the audacity to challenge one of the world's best players - Germany's Timo Boll. Meet the incredibly fast Kuka robot, which is built for manufacturing, but certainly seems to have a knack for ping pong.
But before you start worrying that robots are taking over our world, be assured that the agile machine was simply demonstrating its skills to celebrate the March 11th opening of Germany's Kuka Robotics factory in Shanghai, China. Though it is not clear how much of the game is Hollywood magic and how much is real, as the 'behind the scenes' recording shows, Kuka does have the skills to return and field shots, which in itself, is pretty impressive. As to who won this first ever ping pong duel between man and machine? You will have to find out for yourself, by watching the video!
Resources: techchrunch.com, youtube.com