A new player on the badminton court

21st June 2016

University of Electronic Science and Technology

Joe Bush

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This summer’s Olympic Games in Rio will feature an unprecedented amount of technology, employed by athletes and spectators alike, to help enhance performance and improve our viewing enjoyment. However, interaction between human competitor and cutting edge technology could about to be taken to the next level after a research team at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in China developed a badminton playing robot.

Much like table tennis, badminton has long been a popular sport in China - hardly surprising when you consider that the country completed a five gold medal clean sweep at the 2012 London games of men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles.

You wouldn’t have thought, therefore, that Chinese badminton players would be found wanting for practice partners, but the ‘Robomintoner’ can pose as a robotic opponent that uses HD cameras and binocular vision to stream video, which in-turn monitors the movement of the shuttlecock to determine the type of shot played. Two differently oriented racquets can create a variety of shots. The technology on-board the Robomintoner, which has a top speed of four metres per second, helps to solve the tricky issue of getting the robot to accurately locate its own position on the court.

The Robomintoner has been tested out by badminton champion Dong Jiong and even took part in an amateur badminton competition in April. It will ultimately be available commercially in China as a ‘badminton buddy’ that will help players hone their skills, as its creators claim it has an 80% success rate when returning a shot.