Toyota's Basketball Robot Makes Over 2,000 Consecutive Free Throws

Posted on June 27, 2019

Toyota's basketball robot CUE3 is very good at shooting free throws. The robot made 2020 consecutive free throws, setting a Guinness World Record for the Most Consecutive Basketball Free Throws by a Humanoid Robot (Assisted).

There was a previous record of five consecutive free throws on the books according to an official adjudicator from Guinness.

CUE3 handled the pressure of the event just fine, but it was very stressful for CUE3's team. Toyota says in the announcement that "The team sweated over each shot. Failure was not an option. Simply placing each ball in CUE3's hand was a battle of nerves."

Toyota also explained the hurdles they had to overcome to get the robot to make free throws so consistently: "For a humanoid robot to throw a basketball, a variety of technological problems must be overcome. For example, the trajectory of the ball changes according to how the ball is placed in and how it leaves the robot's hand; the force of each throw results in minor changes to the robot's position; and, even when attempting to throw an identical shot, the supply current and power is liable to change. By facing up to each of these problems and implementing improvements, the team succeeded in creating a robot with the technology and endurance to score more than 1,000 consecutive shots."

The robot shoots one handed with its right hand after receiving the ball a human. It took over six hours for CUE3 to shoot and make all the free throws.

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