Anytime, anywhere table tennis partner
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259
backers
$87,444
pledged of $80,000 goal
This project will be funded on .
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Anytime, anywhere table tennis partner
About this project
Trainerbot is the world's first smart ping pong robot that can play with you anytime, anywhere. You can program specific shots, hone your skills and simulate games via an all-in-one app.
Some partners are too strong and unbeatable. Others are still learning and aren’t fun to play with. Others are a good match, but they’re not always around.
"Trainerbot will push your ping-pong skills to the limit" - USA Table Tennis
"I’ve played a fair amount of ping pong in my life and I like to think I’m pretty good, but last week a small plastic robot called Trainerbot pretty much wiped the floor with me." - Technobaffolo
"You can play through sequences of shots, like it's a video game, and even share your shots with friends." - The Verge
"Trainerbot can offer fun and practice at an equal skill level (or higher/lower if so desired)" - gizmag
"Trainerbot is a new household robot that is almost guaranteed to be your toughest ping-pong opponent." - arsTechnica
"Ping pong and robotics: A match made in heaven" - ZDNet
With Trainerbot, you can program any kind of game or sequence of shots so you can have fun and improve. Ever wonder how the athlete on TV missed that shot? Program that famous match and try it for yourself. It’s the ultimate practice drill!
Trainerbot is totally customizable. You can adjust the difficulty up or down so games keep you on your toes.
Trainerbot shoots balls accurately to any part of the table. It accommodates any type of shot you want to work on - be they lobs, short shots, or smashes.
It's tough to find a perfect partner who can play a competitive game with you. With Trainerbot's multi-player mode, you can play with friends at different levels by programming a varied sequences of shots.
Do you play ping pong with someone you can almost - but not quite - beat? Does this friend have an array of tricky spin shots that give them the edge? Trainerbot is your secret weapon! You can program your opponent’s trick shots, and secretly practice at home (they won’t stand a chance).
In Video Learning Mode, you can watch a variety of ping pong tutorials, and then try out a corresponding pre-programmed session. Or, if you want to create your own video tutorial, simply link to your video on YouTube, program a shot sequence and share it with the Trainerbot community.
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Stretch Goal #1: Support New ITTF Standard 40+ Ball
A lot of you have asked us if we can support the new 40mm+ balls standardized by ITTF. Today, we are very happy to announce Trainerbot will work with both 40mm (old ITTF standard ping pong balls) and 40mm+ (new ITTF standard ping pong balls) right out of the box.
On top of that, we will also make a brand new app interface we called “ball profiles” for you to setup your Trainerbot with different ITTF ball standards. Each ball profile will contain a sets of configurations that make sure the ball still go to the location you specify and the spin you want to play with. We know no one wants to tune the robot every time when changing to different standard ping pong ball. The coolest part of this feature is that you only need to do create your custom ball profile once and Trainerbot will always remember your configuration for future use :D
We are two brothers who love making robots and playing ping pong. We’ve been playing together since we were kids. We knew each other's game pretty well, so we can frequently enjoy the moment of epic shots when we play against each other.
We later on went to study at different places of the world, and wasn't able to train with each other all the time. So we thought, "what if we can build a robot that just serve me that perfect shot like my brother did?"
That's started the epic journey Trainerbot!
Every summer and winter break we would join up to build a new prototype. It started with a garbage can that spit out balls, but it became more and more epic as our engineering skills grew year after year.
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In February 2016, we decided to take our hobby full time. We were accepted to the HAX Accelerator and have since built six new working prototypes with manufacturing in mind. We’re now ready to bring this to the Kickstarter community!
We’re hoping to raise $80K with our campaign. We have chosen our manufacturing partners, and are ready to go with production. The money raised will go towards tooling and sourcing the best quality materials. As avid backers ourselves, we feel very honored to be able to bring our project to life with the help of crowdfunding. We saw a need for an affordable ping pong robot that could be easily taken on the go, and really wanted to share it with the Kickstarter community, where so many big ideas become reality. We look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas on how we can make Trainerbot even better!
Risks and challenges
Like any hardware project, there are risks and challenges associated with manufacturing and supply chain logistics. We’re working with a tier-one manufacturing partner, but that said, there is always a chance that unexpected changes or issues may arise during execution impacting the delivery schedule.
Delays may arise from the following:
Injection molding - circumstances outside of our control may impact the design and pricing of the tooling.
Component supply shortages - Our product is designed to be able to use components from multiple suppliers wherever possible.
Quality Control - As with any large volume order, there is a small chance of defective units. It’s very important to us that we deliver the best product to you, so we will be checking every unit before shipping.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Yes
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30
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Two reasons:
1. We choose 30 to keep Trainerbot small (it is the world's first ping pong robot that can fit in your backpack), so you can bring it to the any ping pong table near you and set it up in seconds. We tried all other ping pong robots out there, it is incredibly frustrating to carry them around. You do not want to experience that.
2. 99% of the people (including ourselves) we demo to need a rest after 30 shots or less into the drill. Otherwise, they got burned out from the drill and will start hitting low quality shots with incorrect form. This is really bad for Training.
Incase you really want to play more than 30 shots per drill, we will have ball extension add-ons ready for purchase after we ship all the Trainerbot units to our backers.
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Adding a ball recycling system will significantly increase the size of Trainerbot, and make Trainerbot super hard to setup and carry around.
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Yes, we will have ball extension add-ons ready for purchase after we ship all the Trainerbot units to our backers.
The reason we decide to release the ball extension later simply because it will simply the manufacturing process and help us ship Trainerbot quicker to our backers.
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As long as the thickness of your table is 10cm or less, it will fit on your table.
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Yes.
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No
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Yes, we actually use catch net ourselves (we bought it on Amazon, I think it cost $40) when we use Trainerbot for longer period of time.
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We didn't add a catch net in our pledge because it will add to the complexity of sourcing and manufacturing. We want to make sure everyone can get their Trainerbot as soon as possible.
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Yes
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Yes