Hardware Design for Table Tennis Robot Capable of Beating Professional Players

Nobuhiko Mukai; Pavel Adodin; Stefan Heusser; Alexander Sigrist; Divij Grover; Guillem Torrente; Farshad Khadivar; Takekazu Kakinuma; Peter Dürr

arXiv · 2606.26643

Hardware Design for Table Tennis Robot Capable of Beating Professional Players

Nobuhiko Mukai·Pavel Adodin·Stefan Heusser·Alexander Sigrist·Divij Grover·Guillem Torrente·Farshad Khadivar·Takekazu Kakinuma·Peter Dürr

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the hardware specifications required for a table tennis robot to beat professional players. After analyzing the motions of elite players, we defined target specifications for the workspace, payload, external-force resistance, physical performance, serve capability, and end-effector accuracy. Based on these specifications, we developed "Ace", a custom 8-DoF robot. The mechanical structure was improved through topology optimization to minimize mass while preserving stiffness. Motor and gearbox selection was optimized using an inverse-dynamics torque model. Low-order per-joint dynamics models with delay compensation were identified and integrated into simulation to enable the use of an RL control policy. Experiments demonstrated repeated full-stroke swings with a cycle time of 0.8 s and a peak racket-center velocity of 22 m/s. The robot successfully defeated multiple professional players.

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Nobuhiko Mukai, Pavel Adodin, Stefan Heusser, Alexander Sigrist, Divij Grover, Guillem Torrente, Farshad Khadivar, Takekazu Kakinuma, Peter Dürr. 2026-06-25. Hardware Design for Table Tennis Robot Capable of Beating Professional Players. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26643

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