It’s been a good month for volleyball technology and innovation. Tennessee Tech went viral last week for a new blocking machine that they developed with students in their engineering department, and now Japan has unveiled a new blocking-simulator that they are using to train their elite volleyball players.
The “robot defenders,” developed in conjunction with Tsukuba University, are mostly autonomous – having been programmed to reflect the tactics and actions of the opposing team. That is to say, when a ball is set one direction, the machine’s arms will move to block to where the set is passed – just like a real defender might.
The machine features three sets of arms on a rig that can be extended and slid the length of the night. Unlike Tennessee Tech’s machine, Tsukuba’s machine has anthropomorphic arms that reach up to block balls.
The product was tested by Japan’s national volleyball team according to New Scientist, and “really liked it.”
While the machine is considerably more high-tech than the one developed my the American students, one would assume that it’s also probably much more expensive.
See a video of the machine in action below.
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