The Lego hackers at BattleBricks have created a robot that throws Wii Bowling strikes every frame, dominating any human that dares face off against this plastic giant. The robot looks like a spastic uneven bars runner-up, but it does the trick; its controls move the bowler off-center, hold B for the swing, and release it at the perfect time. It even resets itself -- and its Mii -- after each frame.
And yes, of course the robot is supported on each side by Linux and C++ guides -- it just doesn't get any more perfectly geeky. See a video of the robot in action after the break.
This interestes me, as I was convinced that there was a random element to the physics of wii sports that disabled the formalation of a 'perfect strike' shot and would render this bot unusable.
This robot bowling a perfect 300 in Wii Sports may be able to do something that I never have, in real life or on Nintendo's latest machine, but can it do the WORM or MC Hammer's sidestepping dance after bowling a strike or picking up a spare? I don't think so. Heh, still, really cool and impressive video.
if you want to argue its coolness out of the context, it still doesn't measure up. out of context as a machine that does something perfect everytime, its hardly original. as a piece of engineering, maybe... but i think more impressive machines have been built with legos, so i still don't like it.
No, not really. If anything, it shows how dumbed down the sport of bowling is. I'm sure it would be quite feasible to build a machine that bowls strikes in real life bowling as well.
In response to the assertion that the physics aren't random, watch the pin action. Something different happens every throw. I'm not sure if it's randomization in the physics or randomization due to the inability to recreate the throw with complete perfection, but it's something.
Okay... it's been a few months since my g/f and I have played this but isn't each "Strike" after the third one in a row called a "Turkey"? And it displays "Turkey"? I know we've gotten several Strikes in a row and each one was a Turkey so why not on this one? Anyone else know what's going on?