Humanoid robot could be the future of basketball after sinking shot from record 80 ft
This robot just sunk a seemingly impossible basketball shot – and made it look easy.
CUE6, a humanoid robot created by Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan), has earned its second Guinness World Records title with a mind-blowing shot from over 80 ft away.
In Nagakute, Aichi, Japan on 26 September, CUE6 performed the farthest basketball shot by a humanoid robot from a distance of 24.55 m (80 ft 6 in).
An NBA court is 29 m (94 ft) long.
The CUE project, led by Toyota's R&D (Frontier research team), began in 2017 with a few volunteers within the company.
It all started as a bit of a challenge, to see if artificial intelligence could achieve human-like precision and adaptability in physical tasks.
CUE went from being components made of LEGO to the incredible human likeness he is today.
But there’s much more beneath the surface than you may realize.
CUE isn’t just a catapult that can throw a basketball into a hoop – he can learn from his mistakes and adapt his aim for a better shot.
He’s trained to recognize patterns and even to correct his posture, arm position and shot strength for variables in real time, just like a human would.
The 3rd generation of the robot broke its first record in 2019, performing the most consecutive basketball free throws by a humanoid robot (assisted) – an astonishing 2,020 shots in a row.
And it only stopped because the engineers present decided to end the attempt.
Rumour has it, CUE3 would still be hitting free throws now if nobody had stepped in.
Before long, he could receive the ball and set himself up for a shot, and find the net from the three-point line and even further away.
He continued to improve with every iteration, with the team at Toyota working to allow CUE to independently pick up the ball and shoot, move on wheels and collect the ball from different shooting positions and even dribble the ball.
The record shot from 80 ft 6 in
A lot of work was done to his hands, and foot cameras were added to make it easier for him to sense the movement of the ball.
Tomohiro Nomi, CUE project leader at Toyota, said: “With the goal of attempting a record, we set out to shoot from a significantly farther distance than before.
“We aimed to surprise the world by shooting from far away. And so, we took on this challenge to shoot from this distance.”
He added: “Using Artificial Intelligence based on robot structure, it learned and thought of the throwing style that would be the most effective.
“As a result, I think it led to the current throwing form.”
The longest basketball shot ever was made from 34.6 metres (113 ft 6 in) away by Joshua Walker (USA) in 2022.
But of course, it took him a lot of goes and a lot of practice.
There were high hope that CUE6 would land the shot on his very first attempt.
Sadly, the ball hit the rim and bounced back towards him.
But it went in on his second shot.
Nomi added: “I want to create something interesting and show the power of craftsmanship, and let the world know that Japan can still do a lot.
“I hope we can share that message.”
He shared that his dream is to ultimately create a robot that can “dunk like Michael Jordan”.
Watch this space.