HKU develops polarised vision system to handle spin, aiming for table tennis matches against humans

A team from the School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Hong Kong has developed a "polarised vision" system that analyses the ball's spin rate and direction to enable robots to handle "spin" in table tennis, with the aim of playing against humans. Humanoid robot competitions follow international rules for one-on-one autonomous "robot versus robot" matches, while in professional players' matches the ball can reach speeds of 100 kilometres per hour and spin rates of 100 revolutions per second.