mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Robotic Table Tennis: A Case Study into a High Speed Learning System

arXiv 2309.03315 ↗First posted 6 Sep 2023cs.RO cs.LGcited by 12

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Abstract (arXiv)

We present a deep-dive into a real-world robotic learning system that, in previous work, was shown to be capable of hundreds of table tennis rallies with a human and has the ability to precisely return the ball to desired targets. This system puts together a highly optimized perception subsystem, a high-speed low-latency robot controller, a simulation paradigm that can prevent damage in the real world and also train policies for zero-shot transfer, and automated real world environment resets that enable autonomous training and evaluation on physical robots. We complement a complete system description, including numerous design decisions that are typically not widely disseminated, with a collection of studies that clarify the importance of mitigating various sources of latency, accounting for training and deployment distribution shifts, robustness of the perception system, sensitivity to policy hyper-parameters, and choice of action space. A video demonstrating the components of the system and details of experimental results can be found at https://youtu.be/uFcnWjB42I0.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 43 of its 102 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 6 Sep 2023.

Builds on

43 of 102 references.

References · 43

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31 more
  1. 2019Learning agile and dynamic motor skills for legged robotscited by 402
  2. 2017Neural Network Dynamics for Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning with Model-Free Fine-Tuningcited by 288
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  4. 2020Learning Agile Robotic Locomotion Skills by Imitating Animalscited by 229
  5. 2018Closing the Sim-to-Real Loop: Adapting Simulation Randomization with Real World Experiencecited by 203
  6. 2018Learning to Walk via Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  7. 2019TossingBot: Learning to Throw Arbitrary Objects with Residual Physicscited by 131
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  10. 2022A Walk in the Park: Learning to Walk in 20 Minutes With Model-Free Reinforcement Learningcited by 76
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  12. 2017Explaining How a Deep Neural Network Trained with End-to-End Learning Steers a Carcited by 65
  13. 2021Legged Robots that Keep on Learning: Fine-Tuning Locomotion Policies in the Real Worldcited by 64
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  16. 2019Reinforcement Learning on Variable Impedance Controller for High-Precision Robotic Assemblycited by 33
  17. 2020Learning to Play Table Tennis From Scratch using Muscular Robotscited by 31
  18. 2017Deep Predictive Policy Training using Reinforcement Learningcited by 30
  19. 2022i-Sim2Real: Reinforcement Learning of Robotic Policies in Tight Human-Robot Interaction Loopscited by 30
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  24. 2020Learning Task Space Actions for Bipedal Locomotioncited by 15
  25. 2020Robotic Table Tennis with Model-Free Reinforcement Learningcited by 13
  26. 2020Sample-efficient Reinforcement Learning in Robotic Table Tenniscited by 10
  27. 2021Local Metrics for Multi-Object Trackingcited by 8
  28. 2022GoalsEye: Learning High Speed Precision Table Tennis on a Physical Robotcited by 8
  29. 2023Agile Catching with Whole-Body MPC and Blackbox Policy Learningcited by 7
  30. 2021Optimal Stroke Learning with Policy Gradient Approach for Robotic Table Tenniscited by 2
  31. 2018Hierarchical Policy Design for Sample-Efficient Learning of Robot Table Tennis Through Self-Playcited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 2; 2024: 4; 2025: 5; 2026: 1.

12 papers.

  1. 2025The Reality Gap in Robotics: Challenges, Solutions, and Best Practicescited by 22
  2. 2023SARA-RT: Scaling up Robotics Transformers with Self-Adaptive Robust Attentioncited by 20
  3. 2024Multi-Camera Asynchronous Ball Localization and Trajectory Prediction with Factor Graphs and Human Posescited by 4
  4. 2024Detection of Fast-Moving Objects with Neuromorphic Hardwarecited by 4
  5. 2024Learning Diverse Robot Striking Motions with Diffusion Models and Kinematically Constrained Gradient Guidancecited by 4
  6. 2025Egocentric Event-Based Vision for Ping Pong Ball Trajectory Predictioncited by 3
  7. 2025Integrating Learning-Based Manipulation and Physics-Based Locomotion for Whole-Body Badminton Robot Controlcited by 2
  8. 2025Scan, Materialize, Simulate: A Generalizable Framework for Physically Grounded Robot Planningcited by 2
  9. 2023A multi-modal table tennis robot systemcited by 1
  10. 2026TEMPO: Learning Temporal Context for Dynamic Robot Manipulationcited by 1
  11. 2024Effective Reward Specification in Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
  12. 2025SpikePingpong: Spike Vision-based Fast-Slow Pingpong Robot Systemcited by 0