Humanoid robots sustain alternating table tennis strikes in doubles study

Researchers report that two humanoid robots sustained more than 10 consecutive table tennis strikes in strict alternation using PingpongDuo, a coordination framework described in a preprint. In real-world experiments, a robot completed a 2.15 m clearance-and-recovery cycle in 2.4 s, reaching a peak speed of 2.23 m/s. A team planner selects positioning targets and filters risky movements using learned risk estimates. Separate movement and striking skills train on states produced by one another to improve transitions. The reported 13.2% improvement in ball-return success over the baseline came from simulation.