Outplaying elite table tennis players with an autonomous robot
, and a new control system based on model-free reinforcement learning, as well as state-of-the-art high-speed robot hardware. Evaluated in matches against elite and professional players under official competition rules, Ace achieved several victories and demonstrated consistent returns of high-speed, high-spin shots. These results highlight the potential of physical AI agents to perform complex, real-time interactive tasks, suggesting broader applications in domains requiring fast, precise human-robot interaction.
Authors
- Apurv Saha
- Yunpu Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3623-4522)
- Peter R. Wurman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9349-0624)
- Stefanos Charalambous
- Mario Ynocente Castro
- Guillem Torrente (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2839-2774)
- Dunai Fuentes Hitos
- Etienne Walther
- Ricardo Tapiador-Morales (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7268-2915)
- Pavel Adodin
- Alexander Sigrist
- Nobuhiko Mukai
- Guilherme Maeda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9413-4787)
- Fabian Schilling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3787-5137)
- Yin Bi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3288-6761)
- Sam Blakeman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5023-7933)
- Hamdi Sahloul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3164-3028)
- Asude Aydin
- Michael Spranger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9443-7008)
- Agis Politis
- Raphaela Kreiser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5339-2835)
- Valentina Cavinato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4500-5592)
- Hiroaki Kitano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3589-1953)
- Peter Dürr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3840-5009)
- Mireille El Gheche
- Divij Grover
- Tiago Silva
- Simon Guist
- Mads Alber Kuhlmann-Jorgensen
- Bilan Yang
- Stefan Richter
- Lison Abecassis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7907-4737)
- Taishi Kunori
- Lorenzo Miele
- Christian Conti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9764-2167)
- Takekazu Kakinuma
- Yamen Saraiji
- Farshad Khadivar
- Andrea Scotti
- Peter Stone
- Valentin Monferrato
- Stefan Heusser
- Mattia Scardecchia
- Yannik Nagel
- Alberto Giammarino
- Luz Martinez
- Yu-Ting Huang
- Jengyan Wong
Institutions
- HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (CH)
- Sony Corporation (United States) (US)
- Sony Computer Science Laboratories (JP)
- Vienna Biocenter (AT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2026-04-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10338-5
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Robot Manipulation and Learning
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.81