The Duel: Timo Boll vs. KUKA Robot
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN links it as the go-to example of fast robot reactions and robots playing table tennis, with some skepticism that it was staged marketing.
What it is
A KUKA commercial staging a table tennis match between German star Timo Boll and a KUKA KR AGILUS industrial robot. It is a polished showcase of robot speed and precision.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2015 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Cites neya · 2015-04 · on “You can load a die but you can't bias a coin (2002) [pdf]”
That's a pretty cool idea! Let me know how it goes :) I think it's totally possible. For your viewing pleasure: [this video] Cheers.
Cites gregpilling · 2016-10 · on “Google Canceled the Launch of a Robotic Arm”
I own a Panasonic Robot welding cell, and I keep up with numbers of robots sold like that - I know your numbers are correct. My experience with programming the Panasonic is that there is quite a learning curve to get over, to do the most basic things with it. I think the small numbers of robot adoption could be a reflection on this difficulty, combined with high cost. My cell was $85,000. The robot was a great value at that price though, it generates about $2000 an hour worth of product. Paid for in 40 hours of welding, good for 10,000 more hours before its worn out. The Baxter should prove me wrong, but I think it is just an underperforming platform. The current owners of robot tech would v
Cites mtrazzi · 2018-12 · on “Spinning Up a Pong AI with Deep Reinforcement Learning”
Hum, have not tried that but I guess the robotic part and the computer vision would be pretty standard, so it would be feasible. PS:They even have robots playing real Pong! [this video]
Cites naveen99 · 2021-08 · on “Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot””
Is it too much to ask for a humanoid robot to play ping pong with nunchucks as well as Bruce Lee ? Or as good as Tim with paddles ? [LINK] [this video] Or is this the best we can do in my lifetime : robotic soccer [LINK]
Cites clouddrover · 2022-08 · on “Xiaomi beats Tesla to building a working robot”
I think lots of companies have beaten Tesla to a working robot. Honda's ASIMO has been around for over 20 years: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Kuka makes industrial robots as part of its core business and for playing table tennis: [this video] [LINK]
Cites charleszyong · 2025-06 · on “Launch HN: Vassar Robotics (YC X25) – $219 robot arm that learns new skills”
Kuka had this demo years ago: [this video] Nowadays, if you’re running a 2–3B parameter foundation model on a standard computer, you’ll probably get a rollout frequency of 1 to 10 Hz. ACT would be faster, but I still don’t think it’s fast enough.
Critical OisinMoran · 2026-04 · on “Ping-pong robot Ace makes history by beating top-level human players”
This is great, I remember being sorely disappointed by the hyped up Timo Boll vs Kuka robot 12 years ago. I thought it was going to be a real match and seemed like the robot would destroy him, but ended up just being a marketing stunt and felt like a fixed fight, with no real digging into the tech or why the robot "lost". Still some cool footage: [this video]