UPDATE 03/12/14: Timo Boll wins table tennis match with KUKA Agilus robot. Two new videos to watch: one summarizing the match and the other about how and why the videos were made.
The promo video was pretty cool and over 1MM viewers watched it. The match video is also interesting and worth watching – particularly for the end part where Timo Boll is playing against many robots:
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The KUKA Agilus robot performed remarkably well – stats for the Agilus robot – and although the robot lost the match, it certainly showed the agility and flexibility to be used in this way.
Although one can readily see that the “match” was really a ploy to get viewers to watch and learn about KUKA and their robots – and the fact that KUKA just opened a new factory in China to build the Agilus robots – it was still a good show and is certain to be fodder for many future ads and videos about KUKA, the Agilus, and ping pong with robots.
This video shows how the previous video was made and gives insight into how big-dollar advertising is produced. It's a very informative 4 minutes:
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A German hobbyist designed a robot to play ping pong with in his garage. Since KUKA won't disclose how they've designed their robot, check this one out:
And here's that robot playing Ulf Hoffmann, the inventor:
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