Miwa Harimoto plays table tennis against Forpheus, a robot developed by Omron Corp. (Video footage by Kanako Tanaka)

Photo/Illutration Miwa Harimoto plays against the ninth-generation Forpheus robot on Dec. 13 at Tokyo Big Sight. (Kanako Tanaka)

A robot that plays table tennis put Olympian Miwa Harimoto through her paces at a demonstration event organized by the semiconductor industry in Tokyo.

Developed by Omron Corp., the ninth-generation Forpheus robot was the star of the show on the last day of the Semicon Japan exhibition held at Tokyo Big Sight on Dec. 13.

Harimoto won a silver medal in the women’s team competition at the Paris Olympics this summer.

Omron said it has steadily improved the robot's functions in table tennis as a way to further develop the technology.

Forpheus uses three cameras as well as sensors set up directly above the table to follow the position of the ball and movement of the opponent. The robot moves its racket after its computer “brain” calculates and predicts the course of the ball to make a return.

The robot was never intended to compete with top-ranked players, but developed to serve as a training tutor for practice sessions.

But the latest version has generative artificial intelligence installed to allow the robot to converse with its opponent during practice.

Saying she had watched video of Forpheus before the event, Harimoto said, “I am somewhat nervous because it seemed to be very strong.”

The pace was slow at first, so Harimoto and the robot were able to continue with a leisurely rally.

Forpheus said, “It appears that you are an experienced table tennis player.”

That drew laughter from the audience.

The robot said faster balls would be returned and the pace quickened, but it could not return a strong smash by Harimoto.

“I was truly surprised,” she said. “It made no errors and played in a stable manner, so I thought the technology was incredible. I was made to work somewhat hard because I began to feel that I had to return all the shots.”

Kyoto-based Omron is more widely known for its health-related products, such as thermometers and weight scales. But its major profit center is industrial machinery intended to automate factory production lines.

To highlight its technology in that sector, Omron began developing the table tennis robot from around 2012 and debuted the first Forpheus in China, where table tennis is king.

Young engineers formed teams to improve the technology and a new version was released every year or two.

Internal company discussions have always begun on whether developing technology for a table tennis robot was the right thing to do. But table tennis has always been the chosen path based on the space available at the exhibition site, the ease of demonstrating the technology and the possibility of interaction with humans.

The latest version was improved to allow it to return underspin shots. Harimoto also provided her own advice, suggesting that letting off shots with greater spin would allow Forpheus to become an even stronger player.

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