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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Sony AI’s Ace is a research robot that plays live table-tennis rallies against people. Its story has two distinct milestones: in an April 2025 evaluation, it won three of five matches against elite players but did not beat the professional opponents; Sony AI later reported that Ace won its first game against a professional in December 2025 and matches against ranked professionals from February through April 2026.
What Ace won—and when
The headline claim depends on keeping the evaluations separate. The peer-reviewed Nature study described the April 2025 matches: Sony AI says five elite players and two professional players took part, and Ace won three of its five matches against the elite group. It competed against the professionals but did not beat them in that evaluation.
In a June 2026 follow-up, Sony AI reported a later progression: Ace won its first game against a professional player in December 2025, then won matches against seven ranked professionals between February and April 2026. Sony’s table covered nine opponents; Ace won at least one match against all but one. The results include wins against two-time Olympic silver medalist Miu Hirano and Miyuu Kihara, whom Sony identified at the time as the women’s singles World No. 26 and the highest-ranked player Ace had beaten.
Those rankings describe opponents at the time of Sony’s report, not their rankings on any later date. Ace itself has no official human ranking. The Nature paper’s claim was that, to its authors’ knowledge, Ace was the first real-world autonomous system competitive with elite table-tennis players; the professional-player victories were reported separately by Sony after the paper’s evaluation.
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- Smart Table Tennis Robot -Our "NOVA S Pro" equipped with 2 BASF ball throw wheels. Frequency:30-90 balls/min, max 0.66s/ball, 11-level. Speed:Max 15m/s, 21-level. 9 types of spin. Rotation speed:60r/s, 21-level. Support count, combo, double bounce ball serving.
- APP & Remote Control -Experienceunparalleled flexibility with our ping pong ball machine that can be controlled via an app or remote control. Tweak spin, rotation intensity, landing point, ball speed, hight and frequency to personalize your workout.
- Built-in Preset and Customizable Training Drills -264 built-in preset training drills, and also allows for programming custom drills, making it the perfect tool for both beginner and advanced players to create a personalized training experience.
- Landing Spot Simulated Animation -Experience precise landing spot control with our "Pongbot" app's simulated animation, designed to help you hit the ball where it counts and allowing you to customize placement for perfecting your return shots.
- Portability and Innovation -Our robot is versatile, with an innovative near-net serve trajectory that makes it ideal for mastering mid and aggressive game techniques through short-range simulations.
How the matches were conducted
Sony says the April 2025 Nature evaluation followed International Table Tennis Federation rules. Its later professional matches also followed official competition rules and were officiated by Japanese Table Tennis Association-licensed umpires. Sony marks several other matches in its June 2026 table as internal assessments without external umpires, although it says they followed official rules. The distinction matters when comparing the full run: not every listed match had the same officiating context.
A fair comparison of table-tennis robots should look beyond highlight rallies. Match rules and court conditions, opponent skill and dated rankings, match and game outcomes, umpire presence, and ball speed, spin, return consistency, and mobility all affect what a result demonstrates. Sony’s reports establish competitive performance in the matches described; they do not establish that Ace would beat every top player or that it is universally the best table-tennis robot.
Rank #2
- Includes a net that simplifies the setup process
- Can be controlled via a remote or a smartphone app, giving the user multiple options
- Comes programmed with 264 drills, providing a broad range of training possibilities
- Enables the user to create custom drills, making it a versatile tool
- Perfect for players of all skill levels, including beginners and advanced players alike
How Sony’s Ace robot plays table tennis
Ace has to locate a moving ball, estimate where it will go, and adjust its racket movement fast enough to return it. Sony describes a sensing suite of nine active-pixel cameras to estimate the ball’s three-dimensional position and three gaze-control systems using event-based vision sensors to track angular velocity and spin.
Sensing and control
Sony reports a 10.2-millisecond perception latency for the sensing suite and a 1 kHz control cycle. The controller can adjust a swing trajectory while the ball is in flight. These are Sony-reported system specifications, not independently replicated measurements here.
Rank #3
- JOOLA - AN OLYMPIC TABLE TENNIS BRAND TRUSTED FOR 60 plus YEARS: Launched in the 1950s, JOOLA has been the proud sponsor of the biggest tournaments in the world, including the Olympics, World Championships, and US Open; Equipment designed for all levels
- WIRELESS REMOTE WITH MEMORY BUTTON: Control the ping pong robot from the other side of the table tennis table; Make changes to your practice on the fly or let your coach take the reins; Create fun ping pong games for kids or adults
- CONTROL FREQUENCY, BALL SPEED, DIRECTION, and SPIN: Just like a real opponent your ping pong machine can keep you guessing; Adjust the shooter increase or decrease the balls, change the oscillation to side to side, add topspin or backspin, and ball speed
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The control system uses deep reinforcement learning trained in a physics-accurate simulation, then deploys its learned policy on the physical robot. Sony describes the approach as model-free reinforcement-learning control: rather than relying on hand-written rules for every shot, the system learns how to act from simulated experience.
Specialized hardware
The robot’s mechanism has two prismatic and six revolute joints, a racket-equipped end effector, and a cup for holding the ball during one-armed serves. Sony reports ball-return speeds reaching 19.6 metres per second. That figure, like the latency and control-cycle specifications, is Sony’s reported specification rather than an independent test result.
Rank #4
- "OMNI S Pro" table tennis robot with remote "E Pad S" and App "Pongbot" for dual control and versatility.
- Programmable ping pong robot: customizable settings simulate ball speed, spin, frequency, trajectory, and landing.
- 396 pre-saved ball trajectories for quick start - 66 drills x 3-star rating x forehand/backhand mode options.
- App with open drill library for visual routines that can be shared and customized, allowing users to freely train and learn from each other.
- In the package: OMNI S Pro unit, ball recycling net, E Pad S, power adapter, and user manual. Not included: 40mm/40mm+ balls.
Sony says that after submitting the Nature paper, it made most improvements through retraining rather than hardware redesign. In its June 2026 account, the company said Ace could generate faster shots and more spin than in the earlier paper, while still not reproducing the highest spin values produced by human opponents in the later matches.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the results say—and what they do not
Ace’s reported wins show that an autonomous robot can sustain high-level competitive table tennis against tested human opponents under match conditions. They are not evidence that it has human-equivalent mobility, can defeat every elite or professional player, or is ready for commercial use or safety-critical applications. Sony presents Ace as custom research hardware, not a retail product.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Hirano offered a player’s perspective rather than a formal rating: she estimated Ace might rank in the top ten among women and around 50th among men, while noting that a male player with a stronger serve or more power might break its defense. She also said the robot’s consistency could make it useful for practice. These are her assessments, not rankings assigned through a competition.
Peter Dürr, Sony AI’s director in Zürich and Ace project lead, described the broader significance this way: “This research has shown that an autonomous robot can, in fact, win at a competitive sport, matching or exceeding the reaction time and decision making of humans in a physical space.” The specific professional wins, however, belong to Sony’s later account rather than the April 2025 Nature evaluation.
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