Deep Green - A Pool Playing Robot? 120
o0zi writes "A Canadian scientist has created another game-playing machine, designed for a far simpler purpose than chess: playing pool. The world's first pool-playing robot consists of a slim box that glides along tracks above a pool table, and shoots using a camera-guided cue. Deep Green pots only half the shots it plans for - supposedly the same as a below average player - but this is expected to improve."
Far simpler? In ways... (Score:5, Insightful)
Far simpler perhaps, in ways. The strategy behind a pool game might be easier compared to chess, but there's nothing physical in chess that needs simulating. That's a whole new ball game (ha!) for a computer/robot over a chess simulation.
This looks up there with the research into teaching robots to walk, scale stairs & run. Good solid research sure, but I wouldn't go putting it down by comparing it to a chess simulation.
Re:Horizon snooker robot (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Simpler eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Pool/Snooker are all about strategy.Any one, who watched the semifinals of this year's snooker championship when Ronnie O'Sullivan came back to win brilliantly,knows what I am talking about.
Re:Simpler eh? (Score:4, Insightful)
I suspect that the computer would do extremely well on a "perfect" board - single uniform friction coefficient, perfectly level, perfectly straight edges, perfectly chalked cue every time, perfectly accurate aiming mechanism and so on.
The biggest challenge is to deal with the imperfections of the real world. If the computer could have a simple look-up table of input velocity, direction and magnitude of the english -> output velocity, direction and magnitude of the english (for edges and ball-ball contact) + some simple calculations of (potentially curved) lines, I think I could program up a quite good one fast.
It'd do great in simulations, but still suck in the real world.
Kjella
Re:Not so easy? (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I agree that the 'english', the spin placed on the ball will be a challenge. Especially if they wish to play on snooker tables as opposed to eight or nine ball tables. The correct cloth for a snooker table has a directional nap (kind of like the effect of velvet... if you brush it one way it raises up, the other way, it lays flat), while the cloth on an eight or nine ball table does not. Having a directional nap affects how the ball travels on the table depending on whether you are shooting up or down the table, or diaganally across. The nap is even on the cloth on the rails and affects how the ball 'throws' off the cushion. So the spin (siding, tops, bottoms, stun, etc.) probably challenges the programmers quite a bit. You can compute that reaction, but it will be different again when playing on the directionaless nap of an eight or nine ball table. And in either type, the age of the cloth will play a role in how the ball travels.
Of course this can all be programmed in. But how difficult/interesting it will be. I would think it will be kind of like trying to program a robot to walk on two legs with the floor tilting every now and then. The robot has to dynamically compensate for environment as well as do the 'simple' mathimatical calculations of the angle of the shot... which is probably not so simple, simce they are trying to factor in 'position' as well. (Position: like playing shape, but thinking more than one ball ahead.)
I wonder if they have figured out how it is to react when the competitor spills a beer on the table? Or tries to stiff you on the bet? Now those are some challenging environmental variables. :-)