“It can also be my opponent. It can help me train.”

An assistant professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology has revealed a robotic tennis partner that may soon become your sparring partner and skilled opponent.

Dr. Matthew Gombolay envisions a future where human-scale robots play a crucial role in sports and athletic training. His latest creation, ESTHER (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot) is inspired by the limitations of traditional static ball machines used for tennis training.