Ceiling Robot Is Watching You Dodge Ping Pong Balls

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 22 of December , 2009 at 12:01 am

Someone from the CKBot group at UPenn’s Modlab spent the summer at Willow Garage and decided to leave an impression on a researcher there by hiding an armed and questionably dangerous robot in the ceiling of his cubicle. A remote control raises a cutout section of ceiling tile, and the robot fires ping pong balls down at the hapless human below.

Obviously, this is a capability that PR2 needs to be endowed with to be successful in the workplace… I’m sure someone is getting right on that.

[ Modlab ]
[ Willow Garage ]

Comments (2)

Category: DIY, Humor

2 Comments

Comment by kwc

Made Tuesday, 22 of December , 2009 at 2:05 pm

I was wondering where video of that prank went.

They were so good — they even bought their own ceiling tile to cut up.

Comment by Hans Peter

Made Saturday, 26 of December , 2009 at 2:29 pm

I think it would be even more hilarious if the trap door was located directly over the desk and when opened unleashed a big heap of balls.. I think a big slide and a lot of ping pong balls :)

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From the folks who brought you OhGizmo.com, BotJunkie obsessively chronicles Man's inevitable descent into cybernetic slavery.

One robot at a time.