Racket control and its experiments for robot playing table tennis

Abstract

This paper proposes a racket control method for returning a table tennis ball to a desired position with a desired rotational velocity. The method determines the racket's state, i.e., the racket's striking posture and translational velocity by using two physical models: racket rebound model and aerodynamics model. The algorithm of determining the racket's state is derived by solving nonlinear equations and solving two points boundary value problems of differential equation. Numerical simulations and experimental results show effectiveness of the proposed methods.