Meet Golfi, the robot that plays putt-putt

Date:
Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:00:00 +0000

Description:
But can Golfi sink a putt through one of those windmill obstacles, though?. YouTube The tiny bot can scoot on a green and hit a golf ball with impressive accuracy. The post Meet Golfi, the robot that plays putt-putt appeared first on Popular Science .

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But can Golfi sink a putt through one of those windmill obstacles, though?. YouTube

The first robot to sink an impressive hole-in-one pulled off its fairway feat back in 2016 . But the newest automated golfer looks like its coming for the short game.

First presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing
last month and subsequently highlighted by New Scientist on Tuesday, Golfi is the modest-sized creation from a research team at Germanys Paderborn University capable of autonomously locating a ball on a green, traveling to it, and successfully sinking a putt around 60 percent of the time.

To pull off its relatively accurate par, Golfi utilizes an overhead 3D camera to scan an indoor, two-square-meter artificial putting green to find its desired golf ball target. It can then scoot over to the ball and use a neural network algorithm to quickly analyze approximately 3,000 potential golf
swings from random points while accounting for physics variables like mass, speed, and ground friction. From there, its arm offers a modest putt that sinks the ball roughly 6 or 7 times out of 10. Although not quite as good as standard human players, its still a sizable feat for the machine.

[Related: Reverse-engineered hummingbird wings could inspire new drone designs .]

However, Golfi isnt going to show up at minigolf parks anytime soon, however. The robots creators at Paderborn University designed their prototype to
solely work in a small indoor area while connected to a wired power source. Golfis necessary overhead 3D camera mount also ensures it wont make an
outdoor tee time, either. Thats because, despite its name, Golfi isnt
actually designed to revolutionize the golf game. Instead, the little robot was built to showcase the benefits of combining physics-based models with machine learning programs.

Its interesting to see Golfistalent in comparison to other recent robotic advancements, which have often drawn from inspirations within the animal kingdomfrom hummingbirds , to spiders , to dogs that just so happen to also climb up walls and across ceilings.

The post Meet Golfi, the robot that plays putt-putt appeared first on Popular Science . Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in
the revenue of any purchases made.



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Link to news story: https://www.popsci.com/technology/robot-golf-neural-network-machine-learning/


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