The company Toyota has created a prototype of a humanoid robot-basketball player, who can perform free throws. The creators taught him the professional technique of throwing, in which the ball is held with one hand, and the throw is due to the work of the arm and legs.
Developers who create humanoid robots are constantly trying to make them more adroit, so that they can perform arbitrary complex tasks, like people. Since it is difficult to create such a robot at once, they create robots for a narrow complex task, and in the solution of this problem they try to find a new technical solution that can be applied in other areas. Sport is also seen as one of such sources of new technologies.
Engineers from Toyota created a robot that can play basketball. As players in basketball move with great speed and perform complex maneuvers, the developers decided to confine themselves to a simpler part of the game - free throws.
The robot is mounted on a mobile platform, in which most of the electronic components are located. The robot itself has an anthropoid structure - legs bending at the knees, arms bending at the elbows and wrist joint, and the head. During the throw, the robot behaves like professional basketball players. He crouches, bending his knees, and holds the ball with one hand. After that, he straightens his legs and hand, and then ends the throw with the movement of the brush.
Engineers checked their robot, comparing it with the players of the Alvark Tokyo team, performing in the Japanese B-league. It turned out that, unlike the human players, during the series of shots the robot behaves more stable. Developers demonstrated robot throws on video: