Imagine you had a portable machine that you can take to any tennis court, turn it on, and instantly be able to play tennis with it.

Not a machine for simply hitting tennis balls (any old ball machine can do that), we mean a machine that can truly play tennis: points, games, sets and matches.

Such a machine is coming, and it is the BallBOPPer Tennis Training Robot.

To be sure, we have received comments from a number of players with links to YouTube videos showing humanoid robots that appear to already be expert at playing tennis. Of course these are fake. There are no racket wielding humanoid robots in the world today, at least not ones that can run around a tennis court bashing tennis balls. 

Our aspiration to develop a "purpose built" tennis playing robot was not inspired by these clever YouTube animations, but instead by Deep Blue, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that defeated Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. 

Deep Blue revolutionized Chess by revealing solutions to Chess problems that had not previously been conceived. Chess masters today mostly work with, rather than against, the latest Chess AI models seeking to understand the counterintuitive and novel strategies they use in order to incorporate these strategies into their own competitive play.

RoBOPPics is determined to do for tennis what Deep Blue has done for Chess - deliver an AI driven tennis robot, that through continuous model training and development, reveals new solutions to competitive tennis problems that no tennis player or coach has previously imagined.

New solutions to hard tennis problems that can help you win.

But in order to play even a single tennis point, the BallBOPPer has to have the capability to track the ball being returned by the player, intercept it, and then instantly and autonomously return it. 

We call this feature True Game Play. 

In order to realize True Game Play (TGP), RoBOPPics has, over the years, developed a number of key components: 

• the AI PRO Launcher, which is low in weight and small in size, but both powerful and accurate enough to hit any spot on the court
• the BallBOPPer App for designing, controlling and running "Patterns of Play" - including the unique capabilities called "Repeating Ranges" and "Alternative Shots"
• the Rover and AI Auto Nav with their combined ability to accurately transport the AI Pro Launcher around the court at human-like speeds
• and the Reloader with its ability to autonomously find, wrangle and reload the balls from the court

It was our intent last year to offer the BallBOPPer, including all of these ready-to-play components, on Kickstarter. The problem was that the 2023 BallBOPPer hardware was still lacking in some key physical capabilities that are needed to enable the True Game Play feature. 

The new and improved BallBOPPer 2024 prototype now has the additional capabilities that are needed. 

But although we now have True Game Play "ready" hardware in on-court testing, the AI models that autonomously control this hardware are just at the beginning of their training.

These AI models will only ever be as good as the sensor data that they are trained on. We are generating as much data as we can, but we do not have enough. We need more. A lot more.

Ultimately it will take a substantial community of players using the BallBOPPer before we will begin to see these models shine. For the purpose of gathering the sensor data needed to fully train the True Game Play models we will soon be making a limited number of BallBOPPer systems available.

These are our foundation robots. If you happen to be one of the lucky recipients of these machines, then we wish to enlist your help. All you have to do is put your BallBOPPer to work running Patterns of Play to improve your tennis game, and then afterwards, connect it to a wi-fi network for a few minutes to upload the sensor data.

The more data we have, the smarter the models become, and the greater the value the BallBOPPer will ultimately bring to your tennis training.

If you are interested in owning one of our foundation robots, drop us a line at info@roboppics.com 

More information is coming soon.

The BallBOPPer is specifically designed for training tennis players on Tennis "Patterns of Play".

It is extremely important to master the basic skills of tennis: your grip, your forehand, your backhand, your movement, split step, serving and returning... But an equally important capability, that makes all the difference in a close match, is your decision making.

Tennis "Patterns of Play" refer to the various strategies and tactics used by players during a match to gain an advantage over their opponent. These can include things like serving patterns, shot selection, court positioning, and so on.

Tennis Patterns of Play can be categorized by playing styles, such as: the serve and volley, where a player serves and then quickly rushes towards the net to try to hit a volley; the baseline game, where a player stays back behind the baseline and rallies with their opponent until they get an opportunity to hit a winner; and the chip-and-charge, where a player hits a short, low slice shot and then rushes towards the net in an attempt to hit a volley.

Different players have different strengths and weaknesses, and you need to decide between different Patterns of Play depending on your own abilities, and those of your opponent. And you need to make these decisions with a minimal amount of conscious thought. Too much thinking during play will interfere with execution, causing unforced errors.

You need to practice your tactical and strategic decision making, before the match, until it is second nature. And that is what the BallBOPPer is designed to do.

The Patient Trickster Challenge, shown above in the BallBOPPer App's Pattern Designer, demonstrates the use of Repeating Ranges (Shots 02 and 04), Alternate Shots (Shots 01, 04 and 06) and shot probability to create a sophisticated simulation of a particular player's tactics and strategies.

The player being simulated is a counter-puncher, who gets everything back, is very patient, and uses every trick in the book: a random down-the-line shot, moon balls to drive you back, dropshots to pull you forward, and topspin lobs to drive you crazy.

Once you setup a pattern like this, one that mimics your next opponent's favorite patterns, the BallBOPPer let's you practice against them as many times as you want. Giving you the ability to adapt your tactics and strategy to their playing style, and training you to make better decisions that can help you win.

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