Arduino Uno Based Ping Pong Playing Robot

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi everybody, I'm 14 years old and I am new to this type of stuff. I have been playing ping pong with my brother a ton during this coronavirus stuff and my brother is going to college pretty soon. He is really good and I wanted to improve so I can beat him when he comes home from college. I want to make a ping pong robot that can help make me better. I have done some research on similar projects and I don't even know where to start on this project. Could someone please help me?

I know that I would like to make it like this. But don't know how to approach this project. -

2

Your brother will be back from college long before You have that robot working.
It takes lots of knowledge and experience to dedign such a device.

3

It's a nifty concept to be sure but is well outside the wheelhouse of an Uno. While an Uno could drive motor drivers to turn steppers it lacks the memory, speed and I/O to handle the machine-vision side of things.

Digging a bit deeper there is evidence that the YT video to which you linked is a fake.

4

Even though it is fake, what makes it not do able? If an arduino is not capable of this, what would you suggest?

Blackfin:
It's a nifty concept to be sure but is well outside the wheelhouse of an Uno. While an Uno could drive motor drivers to turn steppers it lacks the memory, speed and I/O to handle the machine-vision side of things.

Digging a bit deeper there is evidence that the YT video to which you linked is a fake.

Reddit - Dive into anything

https://www.heise.de/make/artikel/The-made-up-maker-2155148.html

5

You need something that can process camera data quickly enough to identify the ball and its trajectory. That takes a lot more CPU power than any Arduino has available.

It might be doable with a Pi, but I wouldn't be surprised if you actually need a PC and a powerful one at that.

This is a seriously hard project and will take a really long time to get working. Give some serious thought to whether you're prepared to invest the effort.

6

I agree this isn't an Arduino project and certainly not a beginner project, however, if you are determined and make a start you will learn a great deal about computers and microcontrollers if you try. You might not succeed in building a table tennis robot but you will gain a great deal trying.

7

Begin to prepare by taking and passing every geometry and trig class you can. And physics classes might also help.

Paul

8

This video is fairly clearly not a fake and would be the basis from which you would need to start.

I seem to recall it includes a few Arduinox. :sunglasses: As minor players. Get your wallet out!