We’ve come a long way since the days of selecting a CPU player for the other Pong paddle, tank, or hand-to-hand combatant. Now the computers are taking it to us, in meatspace, and seemingly nothing no tabletop activity is safe from their depredations. The latest to succumb to computer domination? Foosball. (Or “table football” as they quaintly call it… over there.)
Robotics researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne have created a system that can beat an average player, but not because of some deep neural network that has analyzed millions of previous games. In true conquering robot fashion, this system relies on superior speed and strength.