Toyota Humanoid Robot Claims Guinness World Record

A humanoid robot developed by automaker Toyota has claimed a Guinness World Record – for the longest ever basketball shot scored by a bot.

CUE6 sealed its place in the history books when it sank a shot of 80 feet, six inches (24.55 meters) at Nagakute in Japan in September.

It marks the second time that CUE has claimed a world best on the basketball court – back in 2019, the third-generation (known as CUE3) – was recognized by Guinness World Records for scoring the most consecutive throws by a robot, eventually stopping at 2,020 (although the Toyota support team believed it would literally have been able to go on forever).

As the video below shows, CUE6’s new record wasn’t instantaneous – on its first, unsuccessful attempt the ball hit the rim of the basket and bounced away. Undeterred, CUE6 tried again and made no mistake the second time around.

While the records may seem frivolous, the technology behind the robot is anything but. CUE was initially developed by nine Toyota engineers in their free time in 2017, to see if artificial intelligence could match humans’ precision and adaptability in physical tasks. 

Given the flexibility of top players, basketball was considered a good area in which to test the robot’s limitations and possibilities. However, the first iterations were modest in comparison to the sophisticated baller on the video; incredibly, the components involved in the early stages were tested using Lego.

Related:Tesla Humanoid Robot Gains New Skills; Watch

But soon a human body was formed, and development since has been swift. Step by step CUE picked up more skills on the court, with its consistent accuracy while throwing leading to its first Guinness record in 2019.

After this, the focus was on developing the robot’s mobility, and by CUE4 it was able to independently pick up a ball and score from the three-point line. Dribbling came next, with additional axes of movement and foot cameras for ball sensing enhancing its ability in this area.

By the sixth-generation CUE6, the aim was to demonstrate how the bot’s throwing skills had evolved. Tomohiro Nomi, project leader, explained: “We tried to get CUE to throw like us humans, but it didn’t work well. Instead, CUE figured out its own effective throwing style, using AI based on the robot’s structure.”

Specifically, machine learning has been used to adjust the bot’s posture, arm position and shot strength. It’s also been trained to recognize patterns and adjust for variables in real time.

And this development culminated in the new world record. Now Nomi has hit upon the idea of archiving each milestone of CUE’s progress with a new record attempt, with some particularly ambitious long-term aims.

Related:Humanoid Robot Available for Preorder; Walks, Talks Naturally

“The next step is for the robot to run,” he explained. “And ultimately I want to see a robot dunking like Michael Jordan.”